This is the first entry

I am testing this blogging software. Blogging is not a great word anymore, is it? It seems quaint now. I’ll try not to use it any more.

Just saw Spiral Farm. I thought the ending was good and it did surprise me, and it was emotional. It took awhile to get there and was so gentle in its narrative, not in a great way. It seems that if a film is simply real and honest and does that for more than an hour without otherwise offering anything of interest then yes you do find some moments of profundity. But doesn’t that just do I the viewer credit as a person patient enough to appreciate the film? It is like sitting down at a park and staring at bystanders for an hour and a half: you learn something.

That’s a way of making movies. Different from what I think of, which is narrative and pushing and shoving the audience into feelings and situations. Tarkovsky at the end of Nostalgia has that guy cross an empty pool with a lit candle, and he must make it across without it blowing out. It’s all in one shot, and he fails several times, needing to start again. It’s a video game almost. When I saw it and the candle went out the audience sighed, and when he finally got to the end they cheered. Is that narrative? Not when you need to attract a distributor. Tarkovsky and Godard could do as they like because the audience was there.

I have successfully rambled a few disorganized paragraphs and filled this space. Look forward to the next one which will be just as clever.

Goodbye!