Jonathan Caouette's "Tarnation"

"starred" as himself in the film, he directed it, he actually wielded the camera, and he even edited the film. Perhaps this is fulfilling I am still processing Caouette's film "Tarnation" (2003) and I wonder if this film is perhaps more autobiographical than any other we have viewed thus far in the semester. CaouetteLejeune's autobiographical contract. However, how would de Man see the film? As Caouette viewed the world and his life through the camera, they are still representations of him, his childhood, his mother, his grandparents, David, and his life. Yet, I think that we cannot throw out the possibility that this film is autobiographical. There are various imprints of Jonathan in the movie. From some of the footage, it is obvious that Jonathan admires the work of Warhol, and you can see this in the repetitions of images and photos that are intermittently shown in the film. It seemed Caouette wanted to get the truth about his mother and himself (similar to the film "Nobody's Business"). Sometimes his mother refused to talk about some of those experiences or the things she remembered were not truthful - does this mean that her "truths" flirt with fiction? Perhaps her mind and brain are so damaged that she cannot know what her "truth" is anymore. Jonathan seems to be rather steady-minded in comparison to tell his own truth. Yet, I found out from interviews I read that he actually has a son who is 10 years old with a girl he knew from his teenage years. This truth was excluded from the film. This once again demonstrates that the director (or author) is ultimately in control of what truths he or she exposes and excludes from the audience.