The Night #1

From an exhaustive pile taken over many nights submerged in bulerias and whisky, below are some photos taken while working on an evolving live film of flamenco cuadro Arte Kanela. It is a deliberately simple work, trying only to capture the immediacy of the moment without trickery or complications. The end result will be a feature length live performance that tries to capture the elusive sublime possibility of what happens when artists surrender themselves to the moment, to the night, their intense lifetime of training becoming something transcendent when let loose in collaboration and improvisation with each other... 

Federico Garcia Lorca:

"The real struggle is with the duende…. To help us seek the duende there is neither map nor discipline. All one knows is that it burns the blood like powdered glass, that it exhausts, that it rejects all the sweet geometry one has learned, that it breaks with all styles….These dark sounds are the mystery, the roots thrusting into the fertile loam known to all of us, ignored by all of us, but from which we get what is real in art…"

Dry and Wild and Faint

"So it wasn’t just memory.  Memory was just half of it, it wasn’t enough.  But it must be somewhere he thought.  There’s the waste.  Not just me.  At least I think I dont mean just me.  Hope I dont mean just me.  Let it be anyone thinking of, remembering, the body, the broad thighs and the hands that liked bitching and making things.  It seemed so little, so little to want, to ask.  With all the old graveward-creeping, the old wrinkled withered defeated clinging not even to the defeat but just to an old habit; accepting the defeat even to be allowed to cling to the habit – the wheezing lungs, the troublesome guts incapable of pleasure.  But after all memory could live in the old wheezing entrails:  and now it did stand to his hand, incontrovertible and plain, serene, the palm clashing and murmuring dry and wild and faint and it the night but he could face it, thinking, Not could.  Will.  I want to.  So it is the old meat after all, no matter how old.  Because if memory exists outside of the flesh it wont be memory because it wont know what it remembers so when she became not then half of memory became not and if I become not then all of remembering will cease to be. – Yes he thought.  Between grief and nothing I will take grief."

William Faulkner, The Wild Palms 

Lover's Archive/Archive of Lovers

Nights out wandering with a R3D weapon and Hawk anamorphics shooting lovers and would be lovers for a new clip for an old friend. Sometimes I think some kind of lovers archive is the only way to keep extending these sequences of filmic yearning that I insist on shooting. A vast anamorphic archive of embraces and intimacy. 

Kieslowski #1 - Theft

"Nor do I think that there's anything wrong in stealing. If somebody's gone that way before and it's proved to be good, then you have to steal it immediately. If I steal from good films, and if this later becomes part of my own world, then I steal without qualms. This often happens completely without my being aware of it, but that doesn't mean that I don't do it - it did happen but it wasn't calculated, or premeditated. It's not straight plagiarism. To put it another way, films are simply part of our lives. We get up in the morning, we go to work or we don't got to work. We go to sleep. We make love. We hate. We watch films. We talk to our friends, to our families. We experience our children's problems or the problems of our children's friends. And the films are there somewhere, too. They also stay somewhere within us. They become part of our own lives, of our own inner selves. They stay with us just as much as all those things which really happened. I don't think they're any different from real events, apart from the fact that they're invented. But that doesn't matter. They stay with us. I steal takes from films, scenes, or solutions, just as I steal stories and afterwards I can't even remember where I stole them from."

Krzysztof Kieslowski

A year in flickering lights

For no reason other than film nerdery, I decided to make a list last year of the films I watched (when I remembered... I know there are a bunch I forgot) more or less in the order I saw them. If you like this sort of nerdery, here is my 2015 in cinema...

A MOST WANTED MAN - Antón Corbjin
MOTHER - Bong Joon-Ho
HARDCORE - Paul Schrader

TAI CHI MASTER - Yuen Woo Ping
POLICE STORY 3 - Stanley Tong
BUDDHA COLLAPSED OUT OF SHAME - Hana Mahkmalbaf

13 ASSASSINS - Takashi Miike
35 SHOTS OF RUM – Claire Denis (rewatch)

NIGHTCRAWLER – Dan Gilroy (quit watching)
IN A BETTER WORLD - Susanne Bier (repeat watch)

WOMAN ON THE BEACH - Hong Sang Soo
BIRDMAN - Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu
MEMORIES OF MURDER - Bong Joon-Ho

THE LEGO MOVIE - Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
GONE GIRL - Ben Affleck
LA DOLCE VITA - Federico Fellini

RETURN OF THE JEDI - Richard Marquand (repeat watch)
TMNT - Michael Bay (quit watching)
REVANCHE - Gotz Spielman

WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY - Mel Stuart
DUMB AND DUMBER TO - Bobby and Peter Farrelly
CAFE LUMIERE - Hou Hsiao-Hsien (repeat watch)
THREE TIMES - Hou Hsiao-Hsien (repeat watch)

BONNIE AND CLYDE - Arthur Penn (repeat watch)

THE MULE – Tony Mahony &Angus Sampson

MAPS OF THE STARS - David Cronenberg

RETRATOS SALVAJES - Damián Szifron

IDA - Pawel Pawlikowski

NN - Héctor Gálvez

LEONERA - Pablo Trapero

WHIPLASH – Damian Chazelle

FORCE MAJEURE – Ruben Ostlund

ZERO DE CONDUITE – Jean Vigo

MAGNOLIA – Paul Thomas Anderson (repeat watch)

TAKEN 3 – Olivier Megaton

FOXCATCHER – Bennett Miller

THE IMITATION GAME – Morten Tyldum

HUNGER GAMES - MOCKINGJAY – Francis Lawrence

THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES – Mikkel Norgaard

THE GREAT BEAUTY – Paolo Sorrentino

2046 – Wong Kar Wai

IM A CYBORG AND THATS OK – Chan-Wook Park

KINK – James Franco

LA ESTRATEGIA DEL CARACOL – Sergio Cabrera

A MOST VIOLENT YEAR – JC Chandor

SCARFACE – Brian dePalma

MESRINE 1 & 2 – Jean Francois Richet

CITIZENFOUR – Laura Poitras

THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN - Abdellatif Kechiche

TODOS ESTAN MUERTOS – Beatriz Sanchis

LEVIATHAN - Andrey Zvyagintsev

THE LEGEND IS BORN: IP MAN – Herman Yau

TYSON – James Toback

SALT OF THE EARTH – Wim Wenders

TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM – Morgan Neville

DIOR AND I – Frederic Tcheng

SELMA – Ava DuVernay

IP MAN 2 – Wilson Yip

THE ASSASSIN - Hou Hsiao-Hsien

CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR - Apichatpong Weerasethakul

EVERY SECRET THING – Amy Berg (quit watching)

12 OCLOCK BOYS - Lotfy Nathan

JURASSIC WORLD 3D – Colin Trevorrow

DJANGO UNCHAINED – Quentin Tarantino

NEBRASKA – Alexander Payne

GOODBYE SOUTH, GOODBYE – Hou Hsiao Hsien

DIRTY WARS – Rick Rowley

TABLOID – Errol Morris

OLDBOY – Chan-Wook Park (rewatch)

SALT OF THE EARTH – Wim Wenders (rewatch)

SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN – Malik Bendjelloul (rewatch)

FOCUS – Glen Ficarra & John Requa

LA PRINCESA DE FRANCIA – Matias Piñeiro

LA ISLA MINIMA – Alberto Rodriguez

THE AVENGERS AGE OF ULTRON – Joss Whedon

THE GUNMAN – Pierre Morel

UNDEFEATED – Daniel Lindsay & TJ Martin

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE – Ken Burns & Sarah Burns

THE INTERNSHIP – Shawn Levy

SE7EN – David Fincher (rewatch)

THE OTHER WOMAN – Nick Cassavetes

HOT PURSUIT – Anne Fletcher

SPARE PARTS – Sean McNamara

MAGIC MIKE XXL – Gregory Jacobs (quit watching)

PITCH PERFECT 2 – Elizabeth Banks

ENTOURAGE – Doug Ellin

SPY – Paul Feig

TRUE STORY – Rupert Goold

INSIDE OUT – Pete Doctor & Ronnie del Carmen

EX MACHINA – Alex Garland

WHILE WE'RE YOUNG – Noah Baumbach

THE ARTIST - Michel Hazanavicius

WE ARE YOUNG WE ARE STRONG – Burhan Qurbani

CARTEL LAND – Matthew Heinemann

STRAY DOGS – Tsai Ming Liang

EDEN LAKE – James Watkins

CASE 39 – Cristian Alvart

BOURNE IDENTITY – Doug Liman (rewatch)

BOURNE SUPREMACY – Paul Greengrass (rewatch)

BOURNE ULTIMATUM – Paul Greengrass (rewatch)

CALVARY – John Michael McDonagh (quit)

TRAINWRECK – Judd Apatow

ELECTION – Alexander Payne (rewatch)

ZODIAC – David Fincher

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS – Jonathon Demme

RED DRAGON – Brett Ratner

DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE - Krzysztof Kieslowski (rewatch)

MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART – Jia Zhangke

THE CHASER – Hong Jin Na

LOVE 3D – Gaspar Noe

IN THE SHADOW OF WOMEN – Philippe Garrel

THE CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR - Apichatpong Weerasethakul (repeat watch)

MUSTANG - Deniz Gamze Ergüven

MARGARITA WITH A STRAW - Shonali Bose & Nilesh Maniyar

LAND AND SHADE - César Augusto Acevedo

THE PEARL BUTTON – Patricio Guzman

SICARIO – Denis Villeneuve

HORSE MONEY – Pedro Costa

COURT - Chaitanya Tamhane

MATEO – Maria Gamboa

FLAPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE - Diep Hoang Nguyen

EXOTICA, EROTICA, ETC - Evangelia Kranioti *

INHERENT VICE – Paul Thomas Anderson

DALLAS BUYERS CLUB – Jean Marc Valleé

JAMÓN JAMÓN – Bigas Luna (rewatch)

REVANCHE – Gotz Spielman (rewatch)

THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED – Joshua Safdie

HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT – Joshua & Bennie Safdie

GO GET SOME ROSEMARY - Joshua & Bennie Safdie

LENNY COOKE - Joshua & Bennie Safdie

TESIS – Alejandro Amenabar

KISS THE GIRLS - Gary Fleder (rewatch)

LA COLLECTIONEUSE – Eric Rohmer

SERPICO – Sidney Lumet

THE PERVERTS GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY – Sophie Fiennes

35 SHOTS OF RUM – Claire Denis (rewatch x 2)

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – Rupert Wyatt

CHARLIE'S COUNTRY – Rolf de Heer

EL AÑO BISIESTO -  Michael Rowe (rewatch)

DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE - Krzysztof Kieslowski (rewatch x2)

THE SILENCE – Baran Bo Odar

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON – F Gary Gray

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – Matt Reeves

IT FOLLOWS – David Robert Mitchell

LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE – Abbas Kiarostami

THE MARTIAN – Ridley Scott

THE GIFT – Joel Edgerton

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY - THE GHOST DIMENSION – Gregory Plotkin

 *Best line from a movie this year is from this doco: "Sailors are like terrorists. They arrive in ports with a bomb called love and throw it. And do you know what happens? The bomb explodes when they go away and they never come back, destroying the hearts of all the girls in the neighborhood. How strange - To love somebody who pays you..."

Splashing in the Shallows

“For me, cinema is the ocean. It’s an infinite, endless form of human expression. The ocean of expression. And it’s enormous. After 120 years of making films, we’re still on the beach – we’re splashing in the shallows, and I believe we have a lot deeper to go. 

“I’m not a philosopher, I’m a filmmaker, but I think we have a long way to go before we fully understand the subconscious. The problem with film is that now people view it as an accurate representation of reality. I’m much less interested in reality in cinema than I am exploring the way we truly experience life, which is far away from reality. Reality is really just memories, little slices of sensation that we interpret as accurate versions of an event or moment in time. There’s a lot of things left to explore, and I’m just scratching the surface of the subconscious, of the spirit world. But unfortunately right now I think we’re going in the exact opposite direction. 

“The Revenant was a way for me to express an extreme human experience through what I call ‘pure cinema’. It was a huge exercise for me to work out how I could tell this story with as few words as possible, in a very emotional and sensory way. When you strip out dialogue you do so in order to understand your subject – to understand what he’s thinking and feeling and trying to do – and by doing that you’re left with the image, literally to moving images and sounds. You have to go deep to really get to what this guy is about. For me, it was an exercise in molecular storytelling.”

from Little White Lies

Fragility #1

image: Olivia Bee

"The foundations of our lives are far more fragile than we think. So we are severely shaken when life turns out to have a will of its own."

Susanne Bier talking about her sublime cinematic tragedies.

image: Kate Bellm

The Warmth #3

Some more of the images I've taken in the past year trying to navigate the world and locations of an unmade film... in this case, The Warmth, a feature about a young man from the Australian wheatbelt who becomes immersed in an unfamiliar world of sensation, desire and loss in the remote north of Colombia while trying to find traces of his missing sister. Following the slow paths of development, keeping the film alive becomes an art form in itself.

"a fever is a secret thing" - Don DeLillo

Repetition

This song, over and over...

Order

Between Here and There - A Temple in Chiang Mai

Between Here and There - A Wall in Cartagena

Questions

Why bother talking about love?

Why bother talking about the possibilities of cinema? Or of the novel?

Why bother talking about the transcendent, transformative possibilities of desire?

Why bother taking photographs unless from a distance, or in reflections, or with obscured foregrounds that make it impossible for us to meet the eye of whatever is the object of stealth?

Why bother talking unless it is in circles, laying out trickery and riddles like crumbs?

Why bother with thought unless it is fragmentary rather than the consistent intensity of deep, meditative reflection?

Why not procrastinate when it is concentration that is needed?

Why bother with all of this? Why stare into the eyes of your loved ones when it's their naked body you want to adore? Why try talk of hearts and needs when it is laughter you're looking for?

Perhaps it has something to do with what Milan Kundera writes in 'Laughable Loves':

“Why in fact should one tell the truth? What obliges us to do it? And why do we consider telling the truth to be a virtue? Imagine that you meet a madman, who claims that he is a fish and that we are all fish. Are you going to argue with him? Are you going to undress in front of him and show him that you don't have fins? Are you going to say to his face what you think?...If you told him the whole truth and nothing but the truth, only what you thought, you would enter into a serious conversation with a madman and you yourself would become mad. And it is the same way with the world that surrounds us. If I obstinately told the truth to its face, it would mean that I was taking it seriously. And to take seriously something so unserious means to lose all one's own seriousness. I have to lie, if I don't want to take madmen seriously and become a madman myself.”

Or perhaps it has to do with what he wrote in 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

“It takes so little, so infinitely little, for a person to cross the border beyond which everything loses meaning: love, convictions, faith, history. Human life -- and herein lies its secret -- takes place in the immediate proximity of that border, even in direct contact with it; it is not miles away, but a fraction of an inch.”

Perhaps. Either way, why bother thinking about it when you only want to laugh in it's face.

Between Here and There - A Skyrise Hotel Somewhere