Late Friday Night Love (plus Martian)

Hi, my Darling,

Happy Late Friday Night. Today I went to the movie theater for the first time in a while. Meaning commercial movie theater, as I go to the Armer at CSUN every week. I saw "The Martian", which was highly recommended by Grimsley, or I might have waited til it came out on dvd. There is certainly (and obviously) something to be said for watching movies on the big screen, and before home video it was the only way to watch them - and I suppose home video made us too comfortable at home, in a sense - but at any rate the advent of vhs and dvd also jacked up the making and releasing of films in quantity, and as a result, much of what is released is closer to "product" than an artistic achievement.

"The Martian" is neither of those, and it's of course a huge budget gigantic movie in the hands of Ridley Scott, who you know is never gonna just slash out a junk film for contractual reasons or to make money, but you also know - nowdays at least, 30-35 years past the greatness of "Alien" and "Blade Runner" - that he isn't gonna invest any higher artistic purpose in his filmmaking. So be it. You kind of know that going in.

"The Martian" was really good looking, and had some great science and extreme problem solving, but it lacked a human element, of emotion, of giving you a reason to care about the characters. It was a long movie, but it seemed to speed by because of the non-stop jargon, one problem to the next.

At any rate, it was excellent in the high-tech filmmaking sense, but lacking in the human element.

Which is why a film like "Diary Of A Country Priest" (in black and white, mind you, and made in 1951) will forever live on as one of the greatest films of all time. It's that human element, and that feeling which cannot be described.

So that was my big event of the day. I hope you had a nice day too, and a good start to your weekend. I saw your post about black and white pictures, and you know I agree 100%. Black and White, for art photography, is Pure Image, with enriching Grey Scale. Ten tones, nothing more. It is never to say that the value of color photography is lessened - in no way, shape or form. It is just to specify the instances in which black and white will increase the image value, and in which cases it is the optimum choice for a shot.

That's all I know for tonight, Sweet Baby. I will see you in the morn.

Sweet Dreams until then!

I Love You.  xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)