Re-posting. Wish I had made it…
Thursday, June 05, 2014
Monday, June 02, 2014
The Rolling Deep
I thought I'd try something a little different and since I've deactivated my Facebook account, I basically have nowhere to promote this blog.
Therefore, I can do whatever I want!
I was inspired this weekend by seeing Kelly Reichardt's new film, Night Moves, and what I believe to be her superlative visual style. Not that I think Reichardt represents some kind of experimental distancing from the traditional language of film but I have been thinking a lot about how cinema distinguishes itself from television in a media landscape where (or so we are often told) the two forms have almost become one.
Scratch that, I don't know how mainstream hollywood cinema should go about doing that (and from the looks of the latest in the Marvel slate, they've given up entirely) but independent or otherwise studio sanctioned smaller films have an interesting opportunity on their hands. My view is that cinema should scale down while television attempts to scale up. Instead of focusing on characters and drama (which has always been television's specialty), cinema should instead focus on the larger world. If that sounds vague then it is quite possible I haven't worked this all out in my head, but I'll try to elaborate as much as I can.
What cinema does best (and better than any medium) is experiential. You sit down, in a dark theater, surrounded by strangers, and you are supposed to feel something. It's an experience, wether you're seeing the new Transformers movies or watching Shoah in an uninterrupted marathon. Obviously those experiences are very different with regards to personal taste and objective merit, but both films represent an attempt to extract some kind of feeling from their perspective audiences. I say, strip that down to the bare essentials and instead of showing us a horde of rampaging somethings from the something something system, show us instead what it's like stop at the intersection of a busy street corner and take a deep breath. What it's like to hear the first sound after waking up, what it's like to feel the force of the wind, I know these sound hopelessly naive and unpractical but in the right hands, they can yield what i believe to be the very essential nature of cinema itself. As the 3-D, interactive, never-have-to-leave-your-couch-to-travel-through-space aesthetic threatens to overwhelm all visual media, I think all one needs to do is remember that we are part of a planet that is beautiful, banal, wondrous, and terrifying. It's all out there waiting for us. So to close, I will present this image without comment:
Therefore, I can do whatever I want!
I was inspired this weekend by seeing Kelly Reichardt's new film, Night Moves, and what I believe to be her superlative visual style. Not that I think Reichardt represents some kind of experimental distancing from the traditional language of film but I have been thinking a lot about how cinema distinguishes itself from television in a media landscape where (or so we are often told) the two forms have almost become one.
Scratch that, I don't know how mainstream hollywood cinema should go about doing that (and from the looks of the latest in the Marvel slate, they've given up entirely) but independent or otherwise studio sanctioned smaller films have an interesting opportunity on their hands. My view is that cinema should scale down while television attempts to scale up. Instead of focusing on characters and drama (which has always been television's specialty), cinema should instead focus on the larger world. If that sounds vague then it is quite possible I haven't worked this all out in my head, but I'll try to elaborate as much as I can.
What cinema does best (and better than any medium) is experiential. You sit down, in a dark theater, surrounded by strangers, and you are supposed to feel something. It's an experience, wether you're seeing the new Transformers movies or watching Shoah in an uninterrupted marathon. Obviously those experiences are very different with regards to personal taste and objective merit, but both films represent an attempt to extract some kind of feeling from their perspective audiences. I say, strip that down to the bare essentials and instead of showing us a horde of rampaging somethings from the something something system, show us instead what it's like stop at the intersection of a busy street corner and take a deep breath. What it's like to hear the first sound after waking up, what it's like to feel the force of the wind, I know these sound hopelessly naive and unpractical but in the right hands, they can yield what i believe to be the very essential nature of cinema itself. As the 3-D, interactive, never-have-to-leave-your-couch-to-travel-through-space aesthetic threatens to overwhelm all visual media, I think all one needs to do is remember that we are part of a planet that is beautiful, banal, wondrous, and terrifying. It's all out there waiting for us. So to close, I will present this image without comment:
Here is part 1-5 in a series of images I have captured inspired by the album Early Shaker Spirituals performed by The United Society of Shakers. They were meant to be inspired by instinct and have no larger purpose or meaning other than whatever one feels necessary to invest (possibly to escape the boredom). Again, since nobody will read this, I feel I am relatively safe from any well-deserved criticism.
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