quote of the week

“To be a man's own fool is bad enough; but the vain man is every body's. This silly disposition comes of a mixture of ignorance, confidence and pride; and as there is more or less of the last, so it is more or less offensive, or entertaining. And yet, perhaps the worst part of this vanity is its unteachableness. Tell it any thing, and it has known it long ago; and outruns information and instruction, or else proudly puffs at it. Whereas the greatest understandings doubt most, are readiest to learn, and least pleased with themselves; this, with nobody else.”
(William Penn, Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims Relating to the Conduct of Human Life (1837))

quote of the week

“Language as the material and medium of expression can never fully emancipate itself from meaning. A genuinely nonobjective poetry would simply be gibberish.”
(Hans-Georg Gadamer, The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays (1977))

“the torch” #41 – Visualize – Customize – Iconize?

The question is on and can no longer be avoided: Can that conflict between substance and surface in our digital age finally be resolved, if not all form is empty to begin with? To copy to produce and in turn have it copied again by somebody else (or even oneself for that matter) – the endless cycle of self-consumption and self-repetition is a topic that has been addressed many times before. It comes with various deep and difficult implications and provides ample incentives for debates profound or shallow, just as it makes for sleepless nights among that precariously idiosyncratic breed of artists, and some filmmakers among them. But does it really have to be that way? What exactly is telling in a picture? Where does that quality stem from, and how can it be meaningfully defined? Isn’t there a lot of usable substance in the stereotype, the cliché, as well? And, lastly, what is the common ground of our (post)modern world – its view and representation – anyway? “The Torch” features these burning questions: here.

(pic©mo)

quote of the week

“Where there is kindness, there is also cruelty.”
(12 Lotus, Royston Tan (2008))

quote of the week

“Here I am in your face | Tellin' truths and not your old lies | Seems to me that you care | And I know that you're runnin' otta time | See ya can't get away | I'll be here forever and again | Whisperin' in your ear | Do believe 'cause you know you cannot win | Spent most your life pretending not to be | The one your are but who you choose to see | Learned to survive in your fictitious world | Does what they think of you determine your worth | If special's what you feel when you're with them | Taken away, you feel less then again”
(Janet Jackson et alt., The Velvet Rope (1997))

“the torch” #40 – Your film's emotional balance sheet

If indeed Oscar Wilde was right in saying that it is only shallow people who can’t let go of a feeling, then, probably, our films’ tendency to elaborate on emotions should equally be discarded as sentimental bravery? While I’m not so sure about the former of these two statements, I can, however, agree with the notion that more often than not, less would have been substantially better in much of what we see come to our silver screens as supposed filmic renditions of our life reality. Undoubtedly, there are limits to what refinement and level of subtlety works in a movie and where it begins to be just cryptic, dim, or outright pretentious. So, film at times needs to paint in bolder strokes in order to bring its story across as colourful and vivid as we like it; even in its darker tones. But when it comes to consolidating your draft with strong effects, “The Torch” (here) argues that it is a task of striking the right balance, first and foremost.

(pic©mo)

quote of the week

“[...] for how long can it last, this overextended violation of reality?”
(Thomas R. Pynchon, Against The Day (2006))