New theme: Closure

Perhaps this is the root cause of my summer malaise, this sense of things coming to an end. As in the Harry Potter series. No, I am not done yet!!!!! So, no personal closure yet . . .

But the shocking, because on the same day, loss of Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni on July 30--that brings closure, and reflection. I can't say anything about the loss to cinema of these masters. Many more qualified film fans and scholars have written appreciations and tributes. (And incredibly, lots of snarky little blogopunks have written "who cares?" Unbelievable.)

To me, it is the end of a certain kind of filmmaking, and film-viewing. When Gail, always my best tutor in things having to do with the visual arts, especially film, introduced me to their work, I was completely oblivious to the idea of "film". I loved going to the movies, of course, but the idea of film as a serious art form had never occurred to me.

I didn't particularly like what I saw of Bergman's and Antonioni's work at first. Because I am a story freak, and narrative is my addiction. Bergman and Antonioni, different as they are, share an overwhelming commitment to the powerful image. So it is not their stories I remember, so much as Bergman's light--wintry exteriors, the warm interior light in the happy scenes in Fanny and Alexander--and Antonioni's Blow-Up--I never understood what was happening, except that the bigger the picture got, the less it made sense. But I was happy absorbing Antonioni's London, which colored forever my idea of that city.

The thing is, I don't think anyone is making films like this today, that look beyond the story at what can't be said with words.

If anyone did, would their be an audience willing to watch?

The lovely thing about filmmakers is their work lives on. So you know what I'll be watching for the next few weeks. Once I get Harry finished!