Jean-Luc Godard wrote once about the art/antiart of ‘filming degree zero’- holding an object or a person in a shot for so long that its meaning starts to dissolve. in that situation, the person may in sense and perception become an object, for without any movement or development of filmic image, can this offer a mirror of life?
Blow Job, Andy Warhol
If one particular object is held in the frame for such a long period of time then it loses its meaning because the spectator starts to think about something else. Something related, or entirely arbitrary. It may lead to the magnification of one idea- its structure/its complexity/its history begins to endure within the mind.
The hint of vastness- Gaston Bachelard writes that ‘the world vast does not really belong to the objective world’ because it opens up an unlimited space. A space that we can never know which is gestured toward with cinema like this.
See: Je Tu Il El- Chantal Akerman La Jetee- Chris Marker Vagabond- Agnes Varda
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Past reflections « this is cinemelo // February 8, 2008 at 9:53 am |
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