Sunday, February 12, 2017

plato's cave one (being a film journal)


lucien castaing-taylor & véréna paravel - leviathan - 2012

second time seeing this film. both filmmakers working in the the sensory ethnography lab at harvard university, those three words are very evocative together. sound is by ernst karel, jacob ribicoff and the two directors. unreal sound and image work! especially when the camera is going in and out of water with birds chasing blood (image above). these turneresque moments are sublime, some other ideas the film investigates seem more suitable for a second film, but they are not without interest here but do slow it down a bit for this viewer.
my wife and i had much amusement reading negative reviews of this film on line. very funny business! they are not understanding the beauty of plato's cave i believe.


~film journal~

there has been a good amount of film watching by the art of memory lately, mostly at home on an hd projector, or screenings in and around nyc.
thinking about the essential cinema list, which was one of the first art of memory lists, there has been much re-watching films from that list and trying to add to it as much as possible. it was created when there was a little more snobbishness in the air, than now in chez art of memory.

here is the beginnings of a film log which includes films seen, brief notes on these films and sometimes pertinent filmographies or other interesting miscellanies. some films high brow some lower on the brow.

“behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads........." plato's allegory on film viewing (first brought to my attention by mr. steve anker in film school, thank you sir)

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