Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to my stream of consciousness while
working on this clip.
I could write down my thoughts in Virginia Woolf style. I think everyone
should be familiar with this concept. If not... they sure will google it.
So what do I do with this clip? Lemme watch it again. There is a film
roll thingy, a scary, scary music and in the end there is a human hand holding
the film roll.
Roland Barthes pretty much tells me how to analyze this. First studium,
then punctum. So what was studium again? He said something like studium was the
boring part of the analysis. Quote: (S. 27 unten) “The studium is the order of
liking, not of loving. Blablabla it is the same sort of vague, slippery,
irresponsible interest one takes in the people, the entertainments, the books,
the clothes one finds all right”. Quote ends. Okay, so the boring part, right?
Same thing. I should quickly rush through it, and then move to punctum.
I think the question I am actually supposed to answer is why does Bill
Morrison show a film reel? What do I know? Decasia is a collage film set
together by several old damaged images. And this is the third minute so
probably this is introducing the film by showing the process of producing
films. Or maybe the topic is not producing films but restoring and preserving
films. Because, the human hand in the end could symbolize how humans try to
save what was made in the past. There is technology and media on the hand and
anthropologic influences and effort on the other hand. That one text about
preserving films dealt with the issue of preserving decade-old films that
suffered a lot of nitrate damage. Oh here, it is by Bop Strauss. Quote” “We tend to take for granted, because we live
in this media-saturated environment, that significant films will just be there.
And they won’t.” That is most likely the topic Morrison wants to address.
Alright, enough theory. Punctum...what comes to my mind? What is
...quote: “The accident that picks me, but also bruises me”? It definitely,
definitely is the music. I can barely watch it because of this terrifying
music. It says “A Michael Gordon Symphony”... Michael, you must have been really
be depressed or something while composing this. Let me look up Michael Gordon.
Who is that guy? I think Wikipedia is fine. No one needs to know. Okay
hmmm....let’s see...he is basically an American composer and founder of some
music festival. Michael...Why are you tryna give me nightmares?
What was the last time music or background tone made me feel
uncomfortable? Oh...I know! That noise at the harbour of Shutter Island. That
really gave me goose bumps. I forgot the exact sound. I I should look it up. I
can just remember the feeling it gave me. Very close to the feeling this Gordon
symphony gives me. There is nothing on youtube. Netflix does have Shutter
Island. (0:4:40). This is it. By the
way, isn’t Leo a great actor? I should watch it again someday.
I wonder why this documentary uses this music. Well, actually it suits
really well...because the images are damaged and old. They are fragments and
disharmonious...the thought that so many films are immensely damaged and cannot
be saved, is kind of sad. In this document it summed it up in a nice way:
Quote: “every frame of Decasia reminds us that loss is imminent, inevitable. In
a way the movie is a battle between survival and decay.” Quote ends. It
basically is about death or at least fear of death. Considering this fact, the symphony emphasizes
the nature of the film pretty good... And still, it scares the hell outta me. I
wonder if this is just scary to me...
Shahida Ahmad
