Βρέθηκα στο Trondheim, στην παρουσίαση της τελευταίας ταινίας του Peter Greenaway, με τίτλο 'Nightwatching' στα πλαίσια του φεστιβάλ Kosmorama. Την ταινία προλόγισε ο ίδιος ο σκηνοθέτης, κάνοντας μια αναφορά στην τέχνη του κινηματογράφου μέσα από τα μάτια του.
Κάπου ανάμεσα στον κόσμο, διακριτική και φανερά ενθουσιαμένη, η υπέροχη Liv Ulmann.
"What are you all doing here on a Sunday morning? I guess you all have better things to do. Is it true that shops are all closed on a Sunday morning in Trondheim? (Yes) Is it because you are a religious country?!
Ok, it is very dangerous of course for a director to stand in front of his audience and start talking about it because we’ll rapidly start watching the film and soon you’ ll say ‘Well…. That’s not what he said. And what he said doesn’t necessarily reflect what I am now seeing’.
But let me give you just one or two truths and a little of a fact story. I was trained as a painter and for these 8000 years of painting history are far more exciting than 112 years of cinema. And I believe cinema is now brain dead. And I think cinema is an art-cake preoccupation which might have been very exciting for our fathers and fore-fathers, but after the digital revolution its days are severely gone. I will give you a date for the death of cinema: 31 September 1983. That is the day when the ‘zapper’ or the ‘remote control’ was introduced in the living room of the world.
Look at you! In a few minutes you’re gonna be sitting in the dark. What the fuck are you doing sitting in the dark?!? Man is not a night-living animal! You’re all looking at one direction, but the world is all around you. What do you think you are doing now? And if you watch a film, you are all obliged to sit and be steady for 120 minutes! So, what is it?? Sitting in the dark, looking at one direction, sitting still. Shame on you! It’s a silly game that we have invented. Of course you all know, and have accepted, and will play the game! But what are you thinking about? What do you think about when watching a film? Is this bazaar? Is this a little replica of your life? No response. You’re used so much to playing that you don’t even think about it… Is it an escape? You all want an escapist, illusionary activity. Is that true? But if you do, what do you escape from? Is your life so boring, that you have to go to the cinema? It is… So you want an escapist, illusionary entertainment that gets you out of your boring life, is that right? Shame on you!!
Well sorry, I’m not gonna give you an illusionary activity where you can escape your hundred boring lives on a Sunday morning. You have to work now, you re gonna have to work very hard, because it is very important for me that you come to a cinema and you use all your sophistication. You use all your intellectual power, all your knowledge of your culture luggage. Of course I will entertain you with emotion; of course I will entertain you I suppose with those two major substances, one is sex and the other is death. What else could you think about? <…> suggested money. But money is really rather irrelevant, isn’t it? Or it’s only used if you think about sex and death, to avoid one and pay for the other. So, you’re gonna find a lot of sex in this film, and you’re gonna find a lot of death. But I hope it will catch you in a way, that it will also make you think. Think about the subject matter, and the circumstances of content, but also think about what you’re doing here."
Ok, it is very dangerous of course for a director to stand in front of his audience and start talking about it because we’ll rapidly start watching the film and soon you’ ll say ‘Well…. That’s not what he said. And what he said doesn’t necessarily reflect what I am now seeing’.
But let me give you just one or two truths and a little of a fact story. I was trained as a painter and for these 8000 years of painting history are far more exciting than 112 years of cinema. And I believe cinema is now brain dead. And I think cinema is an art-cake preoccupation which might have been very exciting for our fathers and fore-fathers, but after the digital revolution its days are severely gone. I will give you a date for the death of cinema: 31 September 1983. That is the day when the ‘zapper’ or the ‘remote control’ was introduced in the living room of the world.
Look at you! In a few minutes you’re gonna be sitting in the dark. What the fuck are you doing sitting in the dark?!? Man is not a night-living animal! You’re all looking at one direction, but the world is all around you. What do you think you are doing now? And if you watch a film, you are all obliged to sit and be steady for 120 minutes! So, what is it?? Sitting in the dark, looking at one direction, sitting still. Shame on you! It’s a silly game that we have invented. Of course you all know, and have accepted, and will play the game! But what are you thinking about? What do you think about when watching a film? Is this bazaar? Is this a little replica of your life? No response. You’re used so much to playing that you don’t even think about it… Is it an escape? You all want an escapist, illusionary activity. Is that true? But if you do, what do you escape from? Is your life so boring, that you have to go to the cinema? It is… So you want an escapist, illusionary entertainment that gets you out of your boring life, is that right? Shame on you!!
Well sorry, I’m not gonna give you an illusionary activity where you can escape your hundred boring lives on a Sunday morning. You have to work now, you re gonna have to work very hard, because it is very important for me that you come to a cinema and you use all your sophistication. You use all your intellectual power, all your knowledge of your culture luggage. Of course I will entertain you with emotion; of course I will entertain you I suppose with those two major substances, one is sex and the other is death. What else could you think about? <…> suggested money. But money is really rather irrelevant, isn’t it? Or it’s only used if you think about sex and death, to avoid one and pay for the other. So, you’re gonna find a lot of sex in this film, and you’re gonna find a lot of death. But I hope it will catch you in a way, that it will also make you think. Think about the subject matter, and the circumstances of content, but also think about what you’re doing here."
Ο Greenaway δέχτηκε πρόσκληση από το Rijksmuseum του Άμστερνταμ να 'ασχοληθεί' με την 'Νυχτερινή περίπολο' του Ρεμπράντ, πίνακα που λόγω της αναγνωρισιμότητάς του είχε χάσει κάτι από την αίγλη και το ενδιαφέρον του κόσμου. Κατά τα γυρίσματα, το μουσείο ήταν υπό ανακαίνιση, οπότε ο σκηνοθέτης κατοικοέδρευσε εκεί και στην κυριολεξία αποδόμησε τον πίνακα στα συστατικά του. Όπως πολύ συγκινημένος είπε, κατέληξε στο συμπέρασμα ότι 'ο ίδιος ο Ρεμπράντ επινόησε τον κινηματογράφο 300 χρόνια πριν'.
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