“the spearhead of commerce” – (Godard … i think)
starting point for a righteous, bloody argument
Cinema…an outmoded vague collective noun with a multiplicity of interpretations none of which encapsulate the experience of either making a film, the industry around which one is produced, or sitting in a theater and watching one. Useful therefore for academics, critics, poets and hacks. As with many dead words in language, it interferes with an understanding of what is actual real (reel).
“Forget the grand plan. Forget the master scheme. Forget control. That is the bleak but true basis of independent cinema. Inch by motherfuking inch we must, because we have no other choice.” Oliver Stone
“more important than life” – (Godard)
a word that still embodies the ‘spirit’ and ‘craft’ of the “golden age” of film(making), it is representative of everything that was/is exceptional, insightful, innovative and inspiring about filmmaking and just as importantly about being a film spectator.
“I Play
You play
We play
At cinema
You think there are
Rules for the game
Because you are a child
Who does not yet know
What is a game and what is
Reserved for grownups
Which you already are
Because you have forgotten
That it is a child’s game
What does it consist of
There are many definitions
Here are two or three
Looking at oneself
In the mirror of other people
Forgetting and learning
Quickly and slowly
The World
And oneself
Thinking and speaking
Old game
That’s life”
- (Godard)
could the person(s) that gave everyone thumbs down please enlighten us all about what cinema “is” then, since you obviously disagree with what has been suggested (by the likes of Godard and mr.T!) so you must have your own fully formed opinion, no?
Moderated
Moderated
yeah i’ve raised the issue before with the auteur peeps about the state of the anonymous thumbs and its negative impact! they said they’d look into it, but still haven’t seen any action taken towards it … 3 months later …
www.theauteurs.com/topics/123/comments
Hey i could’ve said loads of fun. I guess people just go crazy for extreme. But i must concur with y’all for i too despise the anonymous thumb down. But kid come on you know you liked extreme amounts of fun. LOL:)
2 cents.. We’ve been through this a million times. …
What is it makes people on the internet think they can behave like pricks, when in real life they would shit their pants rather than wave their hand in someone’s face and dismiss them? You tube syndrome. Ah, the courage of the anonymous nerd.
That said, the best people on this site have a high red thumbs count. So I take it as a badge of honor. No making omelette without breaking eggs.
www.theauteurs.com/topics/123/comments.
I too long for omelette’s T. With a huge array of ingredients:)
The Auteurs is listening! I’m writing from the office. What’s etiquette here? I will begin a new forum to continue the thumbs up/down discussion so we can get back to the original topic of the post. Let me know if my guess on etiquette was off target.
You cannot question numero one!:) He is almighty! I agree with Melissa let’s move the discussion to it’s proper forum!
Moderated
…the empty space between making and absorbing.
and Lauren …ctrl+u (windows)
I like to understand cinema in the way that the New Wave Brazilian filmmakers wrote of it and that is seeing cinema as a weapon.
It gives a voice, it’s a social tool
“Um ponto de vista sobre o mundo é um ponto de vista sobre o cinema” – José Manuel Costa
(“A point of view on the world is a point of view on the cinema”)
That’s probably a play on words, but I say it’s wrong and the other way around (which is probably his point, but I still disagree).
Danny – by way of rebuttal, a quote you posted yourself not too long ago.
From Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?, Jean-Marie Straub on cinema:
“The form of the body gives birth to the soul. I’ve said that a hundred times. …When someone says, ‘Yes, the form, it’s the form, the form, never mind the idea’, that is a sell-out. It’s not true. You have to see things clearly: First, there is the idea, then there is the matter, and then the form. And there is nothing you can do about that. Nobody can change that! …And through this work, the struggle between the idea and the matter, and the struggle with the matter, gives rise to the form. And the rest is just filling material. …The same goes for the sculptor. He has his idea and gets a block of marble and he works the matter. He has to take into account the nervures in the marble, the cracks, all the geological layers in it. He just can’t do whatever he wants.”
“Cinema is most totalitarian of the arts. All energy and sensation is sucked up into the skull, a cerebral erection, skull bloated with blood. Caligula wished a single neck for all his subjects that he could behead a kingdom with one blow. Cinema is this transforming agent. The body exists for the sake of the eyes; it becomes a dry stalk to support these two soft insatiable jewels.”
~ J.M.
awesome quote, Nathan.
actually this has inspired me to write my own essay on the subject, taking this quote as my starting point.
I feel like there’s a Garage style Cahiers Du Cinema zine buried somewhere in this topic.
Ditto!.
As a milquetoasty observer and an appreciative aficionado – with neither the talent nor the ambition to create cinema – I stand in awe both of the filmmakers revered on this site and of their artful successors in (and beyond) Garage. In their collective honor, I offer this from Orson Welles: “A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.”
Moderated
Extremely well done! If you don’t mind me asking old chap. Where did you find that delightful quote:)?
cinema is what happens between my eyes and the screen
Cinema is what happens between my eyes and my brain!
Cinema is life.
Stupid double post.
NE1
Define is as you see fit.
Cinema is…