Am I too tired to blog today?
Day 10 - December the 5th
Today, I'm fighting the resistance; the voice in my head that tells me not to write. I read a whole book, or was it a podcast or audio book I listened to? about that theme a couple of months ago. It was at a time when I was still working on my film project Los Ojos Rojos. Back then I was fighting all kind of fears, something the brain feeds on the way a zombie feeds on brains.
resistance, writer's block, lack of inspiration...
TOO EASY
I decided to go...
walking to get the creativity going
I went on two walks today. Walking usually helps me to get into creative thinking modus. The first stroll was with my twin sister, so I didn't really get creative. The second one was by myself, it worked a little better.
It led to a couple, not very interesting, ideas or possible topics to blog on. It didn't convince me though.
Food for Thought
After my walk, I felt tired again. I was lying on the couch, with my laptop. I had just put some food in the oven. I guess I need(ed) food for thought. We sometimes tend to forget to feed ourselves. I don't write well on too empty a stomach. What about you?
I still wasn't sure what to write about though. I already wrote about food movies, a couple of days ago.
Ah, now I remember... Some possible subjects entered my mind, during my second walk:
BIRDS – I saw some pretty little ones in a tree. That would make for an easy segway into Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds
I remember this 1963 movie to be one of the first horror films, or should I say thrillers, that I saw home alone by myself. My parents were visiting friends and I have no idea were my sisters hung out. I might have made the memory scarier than it actually was, but this is how I remember it. One thing's for sure. I guess I was 12 years old or so. Anyhow, that movie made an impact on me. And when I later got to see Hitchcock's Psycho - a movie I blogged about 5 days ago, I was hooked on 'The Master of Suspense' as well as on scary movies. For your information, this was before Scream (1996) invented the phrase: "What's your favorite Scary Movie?"
I blogged about scary movies too
Back to 'School'
When I started studying film in University, at the start of this century, I got the chance to follow a course on Hitchcock. It was called 'Theories of Hitchcock' and treated loads of stuff that had been written on this master of cinema and his work. The main thing was that I got to see a couple of dozen movies by Hitchcock (often on the big screen). In my own time, outside college, I watched a couple of dozen more. It was intense, but definitely worth it. One thing I learnt, was that even masters didn't start out as a master. They had to slowly craft their skill over time. I discovered that Hitchcock made mediocre films too, especially at the start of his career. The films that he's most remembered for, are only a fragment of his oeuvre.
Let's end this Hitchcock lecture here. If you haven't seen The Birds or just feel like (re)watching its trailer, here you go:
More Excuses
Besides being tired, I had some trouble breathing today. Slime and snot were stuffing my throat and nose. I just realize that, you know what, it might have been the lack of oxygen that made me tired in the first place. On my walk, I had to think of breathing related movies. That's how my mind works, haha!
Here's the movies that my little brainstorm brought forth. I will back it up with some film talk and the trailers:
BREATHLESS (A bout de souffle, 1960) – This movie is seen as probably the most famous example of the so called French 'Nouvelle Vague' (New Wave). This was a movement in French film history, taking place between the late 50s and early 60s. In short, a couple of young movie critics decided to start making movies themselves, breaking all kind of rules. This particular film is most remembered by breaking the rules of editing. It invented the so called jump-cut.
Trailer:
Then there was this Korean movie - that left me and my li'l bro breathless at the Rotterdam Film Festival a year or ten ago. I had to check this one, 'cause I wasn't sure about its title, but it was also called Breathless (Ddongpari, 2008). It was intense! to say the least. A couple of people left the cinema early.
BREATHLESS 2008 TRAILER
My brain looped back to Hitchcock again. This time the movie Rope (1948)
The thing this movie was famous for, was its attempt to look like a one shot movie. The film was edited in such a way, that it seems like one continuous take, filmed without stopping the camera. At the time, it wasn't possible to film for more than 10 minutes or so in a row. That was the maximum length of a film reel, back in the pre-digital times. This thing alone makes this movie worth watching. By the way, this movie is about a case of strangulation.
ROPE - TRAILER
Rope - and the strangling in particular - made me think of The Boston Strangler. It's a 1968 movie - that I've only watched once a long time ago, on TV. What I remember of it, besides it being quite exciting, was the use of split-screen. Something that was quite special at the time.
Here's a trailer:
Words of Wisdom
Let's end today's post with a passage from the 'Tao Te Ching' – a book of wisdom that I bought a little while ago. If you have been following me for a while, you might know that I lately became interested in Daoism or Taoism, whatever you wanna call it. I even blogged about that.
Earlier today, I decided I could just open that book on a random page and see what that led to. It might give me some inspiration for my blog. This was the result:
Page 28:
Picture taken by me from the book 'Tao Te Ching - A New English Version' by Stephen Mitchell
When I checked the supplement, that further explains the passages, it focused on the first two lines of chapter 28:
Know the male / yet keep to the female
The author then adds:
"Keeping to the receptive, allows the creative to arise. Actually, the creative and the receptive are complementary sides of the same process."
In the end, the above wasn't necessary to inspire me anymore, but it definitely made me smile. There's such a truth in it.
What do you think? Have you ever heard of The Tao Te Ching or Daoism/Taoism in general? What do you think of the above quote? Feel free to let me know in the comments. Or if you just want to talk film, that's fine too