July 2007
« June 2007 | Main | August 2007 »
July 31, 2007
AND ANOTHER
Wow. Yesterday saw the death of two of the absolute greatest film directors. Is there anyone else other than Resnais and Godard left that can be considered in their class? (Won't that be a hell of an ending the day Godard goes?) I don't even know where to begin with this one. Antonioni was the person that made me fall in love with film. And I mean real love. L'Avventura was the culprit. Never before had a film aggravated me so much. I distinctly recall the anger I felt forty minutes into it. It all seemed pointless. The characters were awful people. The scenes were slow and meandering. But still, it was those people! I had no sympathy for them and could not understand why Antonioni would force me to experience their search for their lost "friend". Fuck her and fuck them. The boos during its screening at Cannes validates my feelings. But it was film class and I had to finish it. Yet a week after I finished watching it, I could not stop thinking about it. I still can't. The search itself was the point of that scene. The feelings I had were likely shared by the characters. Antonioni takes into consideration the fact that we are viewing the actions from afar but manages to work with many levels of phenomenology at the same time. Antonioni takes into consideration the story, the characters, and the spectator. This sheer depth is one of the many miracles of an Antonioni film. This might seem like a fluff piece but then ask anyone else who has seen this. And ask those people that jeered. Cinema was forever changed and they were the people who reported it.
I have previously made a post of my favorite images from motion pictures. I will recall the final shot from L'Avventura. It still packs a whallup. It is a perfect depiction of self made despair and a visual metaphor for the emotions residing within the characters. The ever extending wall shows us how Sandro will never reach his dreams of becoming an architect, developing emotion, or connecting to another person. Mount Etna offers a glimmer of hope (perhaps) of Claudia potentially having something still inside, waiting to come out.
It is kind of funny that I wrote about the end of my trilogy dealing with the motifs of Ingmar Bergman. The first story I started is based on Antonioni's work of love, social isolationism, and the modern malaise. It is an autobiographical story of the last time I loved someone. A long, long time ago. She was my Monica Vitti.
What was so special about the films these auteurs made was that they were so deep and personal that they offered something much more than entertainment. I learned a lot about life through them. I still find myself in the artistic school of thought that believes that art has to be created with monumental importance in mind. True art has to pursue truth. The eternal ambiguity of it just happens to make it fun. This is now a thing of the past and it is sad to see so much garbage thrown at us daily.
I found a great quote from a collection of short stories and film ideas Antonioni wrote:
"All men who look at death are the same man. But it's an identity that lasts only for that look, the first gesture annuls it."
What a fucking gesture.
The English version of the book is entitled, That Bowling Alley on the Tiber.
Posted by Fran at 10:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
EVEN WILD STRAWBERRIES WITHER
Needless to say we lost a towering figure today. Not just of cinema, but of art and life. Bergman's repertoire is unbelievably vast and dense. It is truly remarkable how many important films he made in the various stages of his career. My personal favorites are the early (relatively speaking) films he made when he was obsessed with death and before he found religion.
These are the notes from a deliberately unfinished screenplay I have been writing for the last 7 years that is to be completed at my old, old age. In my dreams, it is to be the grand finale of a personal human conflict trilogy. Man vs. Man (love); Man vs. Society (work, class, and country); and Man. vs. God (death and existence). Bergman was always my inspiration for this and I while I am waiting to see if I still believe in the message he gave out in his early works (even he himself abandoned this), something inside me tells me that was as close as anyone is going to get.
"And with his last bit of strength, he finally let out a smile. It was never so bad, even at its worst. But he could never let up the continuous struggle. He always knew much much he needlessly fought for just another second, how difficult he made it for himself; yet he felt that he owed at least that. It didn't matter who or what collected. Or didn't.
Only the very last second was for giving in and accepting things as they are. Only then could he finally relax. And why not? That second is the last he would know and that last second was eternal."
Marginal? Yes; but Inspired. Rest in peace you wise, old man.
Posted by Fran at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 28, 2007
HOME MOVIES
As I further descend into the film world, I have begun an attempt at learning the fine craft of editing. I just completed my first project and it's quirky enough to share. I have synced up the video for a short experimental film by Peter Tscherkassky titled Dream Work to some improvised free jazz by Anthony Braxton and the late Derek Bailey.
It works really well together and has a different vibe than the original version and its Aphex Twin like harsh glitch soundtrack.
Editing is pretty intense and video/audio syncing is the most economical way to begin. Having the music behave so well with something so finely crafted may defeat the purpose of the exercise but what are you going to do? Tscherkassky and artists like Brakhage have pushed the boundaries of editing in a way that I will can't imagine pursuing --making it, and celluloid itself, pure art instead of using it as a tool to create narrative. I have a sweet project ahead of me but I don't want to give away the details. Lets just say that it will be "epic" in scope. Hopefully it will work out and be posted in a few weeks.
Posted by Fran at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 04, 2007
Happy 4th of July America!
Try not to choke.
Posted by Fran at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)