[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Lk2OR9q-E[/youtube]
A fragment from a short documentary by Werner Herzog.
Ski flying.
Mmm.
Tagged with Tóxico Project Research …
RILKE DIXIT
“Have I told you? I am learning to see.”
*
TÓXICO PROJECT RESEARCH No. 016: SEEING WITHOUT THE EYES
TED talk by neurologist and author Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds.
NON-LINEAR STATE No. 011: POETICS
“But film material can be joined together in another way, which works above all to lay open the logic of a person’s thought. This is the rationale that will dictate the sequence of events, and the editing which forms them into a whole. The birth and development of thought are subject to laws of their own, and sometimes demand forms of expression which are quite different from the patterns of logical speculation. In my view poetic reasoning is closer to the laws by which thought develops, and thus to life itself, than is the logic of traditional drama.
Through poetic connections feeling is heightened and the spectator is made more active. He becomes a participant in the process of discovering life, unsupported by ready-made deductions from the plot or ineluctable pointers by the author. He has at his disposal only what helps to penetrate to the deeper meaning of the complex phenomenon represented in front of him. Complexities of thought and poetic visions of the world do not have to be thrust into the framework of the patently obvious. The usual logic, that of linear sequentiality, is uncomfortably like proof of a geometry theorem. Associative linking allows for both an affective as well as rational appraisal. It possess an inner power which is concentrated within the image and comes across to the audience in the form of feelings, inducing tension in direct response to the author’s narrative logic.
When less than everything is said about a subject, you can still think on further.”
-Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time–
OVERHEARD AT TÓXICO: CHRISTOFFER BOE
On conventions, familiarity, strangeness and limbs
“Completely conventional movie making doesn’t make sense to me. Why would anyone want to do a film that someone else could have done? Unless you want a commercial film. An art-house film wants to say: I am a little different from what you’ve seen. And I will not bore you, trust me. Art-house movies should experiment more. We have less expectations to contend with. So make something interesting and personal. How can we cut a scene to contain different emotions? How can we twist a theme, make it both familiar and strange? But the more stylized or quirky your movie, the more natural the acting has to be. There has to be something to connect with, an anchor that you can relate to and that drags you into a strange world. Because if there is a certain point of departure that seems understandable, then the movie can twist and turn you, from this gravitational point onwards and take you out on a limb. But you need something to lure people to the limb first. Actors are one of the strongest anchors in movies. So they have to be very real. I am only conventional in the picking of my actors. I only choose the very best; it is that simple. I have used some of the best European actors in my films.”
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(Boe gave a fabulous Tóxico Workshop in 2008. We were supposed meet again, a month ago, in Copenhagen. But, alas, life had it otherwise. Hopefully soon. Plus a new Tóxico interview. His thoughts on cinema still swim in our heads.)
TÓXICO PROJECT RESEARCH No. 014: THAT MALLEABLE THING
Interesting web project: interviews with legendary documentary filmmakers such as Werner Herzog, Albert Maysles, Errol Morris, Michel Brault etc, who give their views on different aspects of non-fiction cinema. The web page can be browsed by fragmented or unified themes, like a series of tiny interviews. Mmm. Nice. Click image, or click here to see.
TÓXICO PROJECT RESEARCH No. 010
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RvmJan17q8[/youtube]
La Jetée, by the marvellous Chris Marker.
(Si no lo has visto, uff, te has perdido de una de las joyitas del cine.)
ONCE SAID DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
“Really good fiction can have as dark a worldview as it wishes, but is should find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it. My central issue remains how to give CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times.”