tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708273719674528189.post7091256530712384347..comments2024-03-22T00:20:38.510-07:00Comments on Adam Riggio writes: Can We Even Think Like This Anymore? Composing, 11/01/2016Adam Riggiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14606510835439580828noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708273719674528189.post-31018233694628328382016-01-11T07:00:13.783-08:002016-01-11T07:00:13.783-08:00You touch on another reason why, in a weird way, I...You touch on another reason why, in a weird way, I'm glad George has moved on from the Star Wars franchise. I mean, I discuss in the post that now the aesthetic possibilities of Star Wars are now free to creep beyond Lucas' shadow and legacy. But now, Lucas is also free from Star Wars.<br /><br />He can devote himself to making the proper, weird, experimental Cinema Pur films that he's always been inclined to make since his early days. Literal image poetry. They'd be much more exciting to see than more developments of Star Wars, simply for no longer being constrained by the necessity to pay lip service to the narrative conventions we know as a culture.Adam Riggiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14606510835439580828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708273719674528189.post-49262121513939354152016-01-11T00:04:11.855-08:002016-01-11T00:04:11.855-08:00I just rewatched Attack of the Clones and Revenge ...I just rewatched Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, with a mind to really trying to like them. But Attack of the Clones was actually much WORSE than I remember it being. Revenge of the Sith, though, was quite a bit better. I didn't have it in me to watch The Phantom Menace again. i just couldn't bring myself to do it.Michael Hemmingsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05390854349398626567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708273719674528189.post-20057212897591395072016-01-10T23:38:46.798-08:002016-01-10T23:38:46.798-08:00So I found this post particularly interesting, bec...So I found this post particularly interesting, because it touches on some concepts I've been thinking a lot about lately myself.<br /><br />Now I'm far from a Star Wars fan as you likely know, but for one of my numerous ill-advised writing projects, I've been researching the history of abstract film, in particular the avant-garde style of Cinéma pur. The proponents of Cinéma pur argued film should be "elemental": That is, emphasizing things like movement and rhythm (often accompanied by music) and downplaying, often to the point of outright excising, narrative and characterization (the argument went that not only were these things fundamentally bourgeois, but they also belonged to art forms that were not film, and thus film should not concern itself with things derived from Aristoteleanism). Going by that description, this is basically the kind of art I want to make.<br /><br />Anyway, the reason I mention this is because according to my research George Lucas is cited as being possibly the biggest contemporary filmmaker inspired by Cinéma pur, and Star Wars is cited as an influential modern example. But the thing is I absolutely cannot see it in Star Wars, or at least I couldn't until you pointed out the argument Star Wars would work better with no sound except music. That's actually pretty close to the kind of visual art that inspires me the most, but I have a hard time seeing Star Wars as a great example of that for the very reason that Lucas *does* seem to rest so heavily on the pulp serial tradition. I mean if you're going to take out things we would conventionally recognise as plot and characterization (which I'm personally not opposed to, though I might not go to quite the extreme as some)I'd imagine you ought to replace them with something else that's better, and I'm not convinced Lucas ever does with Star Wars. Defaulting back onto pulp serials feels a bit like phoning that part of the job in to me.<br /><br />(<i>Dirty Pair: The Motion Picture</i> has this problem too, and though I tend to think it's a far better shot at the Cinéma pur ideal than Star Wars, the pulp stuff *really* kills it. I have a very contentious relationship with that movie.)<br /><br />Furthermore, I have a really hard time seeing George Lucas' directorial and cinematographical style as being particularly abstract: When I look at Star Wars, it strikes me as frankly rather pedestrian-Golden Age Hollywood throwback stuff if anything. I dunno, maybe I'm missing something, but I just don't get it.<br /><br />So I'm not sure what the point of any of that was, but it's neat how we seem to be thinking along the same thematic wavelength at the moment.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03828341842948036592noreply@blogger.com