December 2007
10 posts
“I rather shun this getting cleared out and, with my nature, could hardly expect...”
– Rilke (on psychoanalysis)
“I believe that as soon as an artist has found the living center of his activity,...”
– Rainer Maria Rilke
“As I began work on Mirror, I found myself reflecting more and more that if you...”
– Tarkovski
“Art is that human activity which consists in one man’s consciously conveying to...”
– Leo Tolstoy
“I believe that fiction can serve to reveal not the visible but the invisible,...”
– Olivier Assayas
“The reality of all culture, our own included, consists in realizing these images...”
– Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness
“I’ve about had it—the agencies, the winking, the networks, the ratings. Anyone...”
– Robert Altman
Writing As Pathology
I think there are definitely pathological aspects to it. Otherwise what would make someone sit in a basement and type for the majority of their waking hours? It’s a very weird thing to do. It doesn’t feed you or offer sexual gratification. It doesn’t do any of those things. It’s a cultural activity, in the sense of Brian Eno’s definition of culture, which is all those...
Time To Buy Your Soul Back
Then why do it, you may ask? Why take the money if what goes into obtaining it leaves you so creatively and emotionally devastated? What could it buy you that could possibly be worth it? What it buys you is this, and it is something more precious than material goods: it buys you time. Time to write rather than punch a clock at a job you hate that devours all your energy and your will. Time to...
There Are No Messages
For me, if a film is working, it’s a complex, organic creature with a life of its own, and it’s not anything like a message. It’s a much more complex animal than that. It’s not a letter. It’s not an agenda. It’s not a proposal. It’s a philosophical endeavor. It’s a philosophical exploration. For me a film is a way I conduct my philosophical investigations. It’s how I delve into my own responses to...