Pure Cinema

Happy Sunday Evening to My Baby! I'm just chillin' at my pad. I took The Kobester on a super long CSUN walk this morn, so I am gonna count that as 2/3rds of my milage for the day. I will finish up in a little while. This afternoon I watched a movie called "Spirit Of The Beehive". They were having a sale at Amazon on Criterion Collection films, and this one was in my "recommended for you" list, so I ordered it. It's a movie in which there is no plot, and only the barest bones of a story, but as we have been talking about art, this filmmaker (Victor Erice) succeeded by creating pure cinema, where the effectiveness of the film is dependent almost entirely on the imagery. I like meditative, poetic films, and "Beehive" is one of the most extreme examples of it's kind that I have seen. It's ostensibly about two little girls, sisters, who watch a screening of the original "Frankenstein", in a rural village in post-Civil War Spain in 1940. The film has a psychological effect on the younger sister, who then goes in search of the real Frankenstein. But when you watch the movie, that's only a sketch of what happens. Instead, the filmmaker uses a series of vignettes to draw you into the story on a different, subliminal level. He shows the father - a beekeeper - at work. Shows the mother writing a letter, the girls hunting for mushrooms in the woods, exploring an old barn. It's all very deliberative. But the cinematography and lighting is gorgeous, the editing and pacing are slow and hypnotic, and it's all about the images and the script dialogue, much of which is philosophical.

I don't know how you feel about arthouse films, but it's the kind of movie where you kind of go "huh"?, when it's over, and then about half an hour later it hits you how great it is.

I love it when any artist - in this case a filmmaker - just puts out what's in his head, but does so with such skill that it doesn't matter that it's unconventional. I also like the way one art form can influence another. You can watch a movie like this, and because it influenced your state of mind, that will in turn influence your guitar playing afterward. The film sets a mood, and the mood translates to the music. Or you could read a poem, and make a film solely on how the poem makes you feel.

It's all about the conviction you put into it. You could film a dream if the dream had an effect on you, and if you believed that the imagery would have the same effect on the audience. So long as you had that conviction, it would translate. Skill would be neccessary too, of course - to choose the right images, pacing, soundtrack, etc. - but pure cinema is all about the idea that a film doesn't have to be about anything, at least not overtly. And come to think of it, art photography is like that, too, except the idea is conveyed with a single image. You can literally photograph anything, and as long as your conviction is strong, and the picture is skillfully shot, the mood of the photograph will translate to the viewer.

Anyway, if you do like arthouse cinema, "Spirit Of The Beehive" is a good one, though it is an extreme example of cinema as poetry.

I got a kick out of your Calvin & Hobbes cartoon. So your bike is an enemy combatant, eh? :) I was always okay on a bike, but for me it was jogging. When I used to jog, I would regularly trip over something, an upraised part of the sidewalk, a misjudged curb, an unseen tree root. So I came home with skinned knees on more than a few occassions, but hey - it's part of being a kid!.......um, I mean an adult! :) I haven't ridden a bike in a while, but in Junior High I liked to do wheelies on my 10speed, lol.

Well, beautiful lady, that is all for tonight. I hope you had a nice day. I will see you in the morning and we will  have a great week coming up.

I Love You! :):)