Here, in this new, regularly updated column, I will post the current goings-on, curiosities and obsessions in my cinematic universe. - Peter Rinaldi
“I love the cinema. Rossellini no longer loves it, he is detached from it, he loves life. Compared to Rossellini, I have the sin of the cinephile." - Jean Luc Godard, 1962
Roberto Rossellini is an interesting figure in world cinema. I hadn’t seen many of his films when I picked up a book called “My Method”, which included a number of interviews and writings from the “Father of Neo-realism”. I was so intrigued by what I read that I nearly busted a blood vessel when I found out that MOMA was going to have a Rossellini retrospective (this was in 2006). Most of his films are so hard to find, and the ones that are available are in such rough shape. It seemed like a great opportunity to dive into his work.
Well it's not easy to dive into Rossellini. He's difficult. Not difficult like Godard's work is difficult, but in a totally different, possibly opposite, way. You see, as a cinephile, I have always found it easy to love Godard. In fact, I know plenty of cinephiles that don’t enjoy Godard, but I don’t know anyone who enjoys Godard that is not a cinephile. His life is film, and even though his work functions on many complex political and Brechtian levels, it's influences are, predominately, other films . Perhaps he is the first real film junkie to turn into a filmmaker.
Rossellini's films are rough, badly acted (for the most part) and are shot seemingly (perhaps deceptively) without a driving artistic force. He, according to Godard’s biographer Richard Brody, “was hostile to any veneration of the cinema as a means of artistic expression.” It is so interesting that Godard felt both a pull toward this way of making films and a rejection to it. When asked who his “masters” are, Godard said he had none, “or perhaps just one, because of his will to independence: Rossellini.” And yet, he called his short film Le Nouveau Monde, almost proudly, “anti-Rossellini”.
When I read Godard’s quote about the “sin of the cinephile”, I had a realization. Maybe I wasn’t as intrigued as I though I’d be with the films of Rossellini because I too was riddled with the sin of the cinephile. I think I need to literally SEE a deliberateness in a filmmakers cinematic style to actually begin to appreciate that filmmaker. This isn’t in the work of Rossellini, he rejected such things. It is this “deliberateness” that is at the heart of the auteur theory , which is where my cinephilia is likely rooted.
But the young French cinephiles from Cashier Du Cinema adored, and found influence in, the work of Rossellini. Why? Maybe because the lack of deliberateness of style in Rossellini, his literally rejection of cinema as art, actually manifests as a style, as HIS art. But is it art if it’s not trying to be? These are the questions that create such an interest in Rossellini for me, and send me continually back to study his films. Like any great master, as you grow, your appreciation of his work grows with you.
“The sin of cinephilia” likely means something different for me than it did for Godard. But nevertheless I find truth in it. Rossellini is sinless because he has no cinephilia. I think Godard envied that. I relate to that envy. Because I choose “film” over “life”, my films will constantly suffer. They will never be pure like Rossellini’s. But I won’t want them to, because, just like a proper sinner, I am not in a hurry to get saved. Yet there is a constant guilt that I live with, and a feeling deep down inside that maybe the way to true art is away from it, and that I must start loving life and stop loving cinema. It is then that MY cinema will evolve.
Till then, I will confess my sins here, in this column, at The Boutros Boutros Follies.
Monday, November 17, 2008
SIN-E-FILE (Godard and Rossillini)
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Bedbugs LVI
Bedbugs LVI
Click here for an explanation of how Bedbugs is created.
Click here for last week's Bedbugs.
All of us woke up at the same time but when
the blinds opened, the room stayed at the same level
of muffled light. She screamed. I promise we'll survive a
minor mental heart attack but she wasn't having any of it.
Cut your palm intentionally and you still won't wake up. That's
someone else's heartbeat, I promise you. We run downstairs
and it's dark yet I can see everything..the sky's pitch black
and ruined costumes are in the trash. Sadly too young for us,
that ambition. Running a mile to the water, the city is covered
in a cloud..not a storm or something violent, but that muffled
ether that clouded the song that used to repeat in my head..
what is going on? Better averages of knowing story coming
from the next room is what I think up next. Makes no sense.
Are we being affected? Few folks scatter and I run back to the
apartment knowing faking an accent of honesty. Tell me what the
clock says doesn't matter. The weird high pitched noise, like
when your eardrums blow out, is increasing. Back to bed. Hide.
Force sleep till it comes. Maybe rejuvinated, none too soon.
Next week's seven phrases/groups of words:
-want for nothing
-fake wings in the dumpster out back
-someone collapsed upstairs
-I love this type of weather
-for two hours
-that's the best the team came up with
-shock me.
-Adam Barnick
Friday, November 7, 2008
The Boxpress Music Time Show with Brian Hughes
Show #14: BOB DYLAN - PART 2
If you think you might want to listen to some more of my podcasts - please click below:
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Bedbugs LV
Bedbugs LV
Click here for an explanation of how Bedbugs is created.
Click here for last week's Bedbugs.
I abandon an office triumphantly. I set goals
that get met. I lose 20 pounds the detention
centers are full and I want to make sure I
don't go there. I do it all of my own choice;
strap a new face on, pretend that's a fresh
start. I focus, not follow. Your skin is rusting.
Your soul, if it exists, needs polish. I'm
not the man to fix it but music from when
we were 12 is stuck in my head. It is NOT
the habits that lead to being a drone.
TV dinners and throwing up your hands, choices,
too many choices between two puppets and some
others who stand no chance. Tell yourself
you're free. Who knows, plans you'll
never act on could kick in. She'd better
not be there. I need to draw a doorway and
get out...
Next week's seven phrases/groups of words:
-I promise we'll survive
-cut your palm intentionally
-sadly too young for us
-story coming from the next room
-faking an accent of honesty
-what the clock says doesn't matter
-rejuvinated, none too soon
-Adam B.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Six Word Theater
Six Word Theater
Click here for the most recent entry.
Inspired by the challenge Hemingway undertook to tell a story
in six words("For Sale: baby shoes. Never worn."), I attempt
to polish my skills by telling a six-word story or phrase on
Wednesdays..or every few Wednesdays.
Feel free to "continue the story"
or start your own.
Today's Entry:
Supported the war.
Enlisted.
Mind's changed.
-Adam
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
GWAR in America's Bad Kids' Election Day Special!
The most politically relevant band of the modern era
dishes its two cents on our future leaders as
America's Bad Kids goes behind the scenes of
GWAR's new tour(with the BBF's Adam Barnick
on co-camera duties)!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Bedbugs LIV
Bedbugs LIV
Click here for an explanation of how Bedbugs is created.
Click here for last week's Bedbugs.
Everything felt normal, hat trick, 3 years of
safety balanced with creative risk, someone is breathing
into the speaker instead of stepping behind too large
a space between your ears should be filled, no comment..
I'm my own emotional surgeon, trying to balance
keep my ears ringing; who is playing not realizing
who owns it could be a fatal mistake. Hang from
the rafters like the rest of them. Read a fucking book.
Escape. Broken before it got to me,
snapping back to coherency a pleasant way to
understand. One's brains are out of shape, not since
high school.
Next week's seven phrases/groups of words:
-the detention centers are full
-strap a new face on
-your skin is rusting
-music from when we were 12
-choices, too many choices
-plans you'll never act on
-draw a doorway and get out
-Adam
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