Abstract (ab+stract) adj.
1. having no reference to
material objects or specific examples; not concrete
2. not applied or practical;
theoretical
3. hard to understand; recondite;
abstruse
Abstruse (ad+struse) adj.
not easy to understand;
recondite; esoteric
Taken from the Collins English Dictionary, 1979 Edition
In the middle of October 2017, in
the midst of the Halloween 31 for 31
season of film reviews I completed annually, a sudden emotional shock was felt.
I had become unemployed at the start of October but it only sunk in two or so
weeks after was quite a horrible effect. A depression which took advantage of
sadly my worst tendencies, imagined cataclysms and pessimism, and grew deeper.
It fed on aspects which were idiotic to worry about, fearing my mortality
despite only being twenty eight. But it also fed on aspects which were a small
existential crisis. A spiritual one but also of greater important trying to
reconnect back to simple pleasures that actual meant something to me. Before
this becomes a morose, oh-woe-is-me scenario from someone far more well off
than many, there was instead a realisation that I hadn't lived up to my own
personal expectations of what I should accomplish. Placing myself into my
community and helping those around me is one such factor. The other to get back
to cinema is that for a blog called Cinema
of the Abstract, it's drifted from the original plan to be both
entertaining and actually cover abstract films too much. I had already realised
this and planned to take this blog back not only to its roots but improve on
it, to take the blog's point of existence more seriously. The emotional shock
and depression, now October's past and I'm dusting myself off, have pushed this
plan forward. To tidy up and focus this blog. To spend more time on it and on
the quality of what I write. With this in mind, I am going to go through some
drastic changes...
1) Of greatest importance is to
improve my writing. I had rushed some reviews and need to work on them. To stop
writing in a generic style of review fed from Total Film magazine articles I read as a kid and actually create my
own voice. Which means spoilers will no longer be a concern for reviews, as
that actually regressed and undercut some reviews in the past. Taking the time
to write these reviews, but to not take too long, is of importance. To take the
time to cover films whether they are high art or unintentional surrealism and,
rather than use clichéd phrases, to prod why say a Doris Wishman film causes a reaction in a viewer as much as a David Lynch film.
2) To do so I need to drastic
improve the Abstract Spectrum aspect
of the reviews. The entire page on the subject, The Colour Spectrum of Abstract Films, has been an embarrassment
for a couple of years, never looking at the section again when I completed it
and never daring take it down. Likely from an emotional fondness for how absurd
the process was, which involved even drawing around a plate in a cafe and using
Microsoft Paint to create a diagram.
When this post is put up, it will be deleted, the "Abstract Section"
in the reviews now to be terms to describe the experiences felt from the films
using existing artistic movements or terminology you can look up as a reader
easily. Eventually a new page will be built up once I relearn a college worth
of Films Studies and significantly more to the point I can rewrite it with some
greater knowledge.
3) The Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None) will stay as it is
untouched, only with the Abstract List page updated more.
4) As of now, this will be the
last of the Halloween 31 for 31
series I'll do unless anything changes for next year. The issue is that, whilst
I've loved doing them over five years over two blogs, even a month's worth of
preparation eventually led to rushed reviews.
4b) In general the A Night of a Thousand (Horror) ---
reviews will be curtailed down to a small number being published at a time,
having ended up writing more of them than about reviews about the actual
subject of the blog. Thankfully horror in many places is inherently surreal or
weird, so the number (currently at #148) will increase still. It will mean that
films I have no interest in writing about will just be ignored1.
5) TV Series will still be
covered. The longer amount of time needed for them however does bring up an
important question in terms of covering them or not, whether it's worth
investing the time if they are important to cover or not. I was meant to cover Gantz, the 2004 adaptation by Studio Gonzo and Ichiro Itano but I couldn't finish it off after two months going
through it, at episode twenty with only six episodes left abandoning it. A
realisation, after having had patience with the series with its tonal shifts
and decision to stretch plot points over multiple episodes, that my investment
was broken by a terrible storytelling decision2 which lost me
completely.
6) This blog is still meant to be
fun. Thankfully in the time that's passed as this has been typed together has
allowed me to cheer up. I wish though to be better in terms of emotional state
than before, to completely avoid depression in the slightest unless
unavoidable, and the only way forward with that is to bring my spirits up. The blog is meant to tackle the
"Abstract" in cinema, that which is less than easy to define. That separates
this from a website like 366 Weird
Movies in that the pool I draw from is significantly more larger in what
"abstract" could mean. It also means that the type of films covered
will not just be cerebral serious art films. In fact a significant factor to
this type of cinema (and why I prefer so much to Hollywood and narrative led
mainstream filmmaking) is that even that stereotype is undermined continually. The
serious dramas with minimalist realism can suddenly burst into music numbers
with people dressed up as giant penises, as Tsai
Ming-liang fans can attest to, amongst such other unpredictable examples. I
got into cinema after 2008, with the 2000s became an era of unconventional
films made by the likes of Ming-liang,
Claire Denis, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Carlos Reygadas etc., fed upon by
predessors from the classic era of art cinema of the fifties and sixties, and
pushing what a film was in terms of genre, in terms of content, in terms of
style to extremes. Not just extremes in content but structure. That type of
cinema is the one I embrace the most and everything that deviates outside of it
does however link even by accident to them in content. Weird exploitation films
from the dustbin of genre filmmaking which are regional productions, showing
their environments, or deviate from what it expected from cinema. Ephemeral
films and home movies preserved by archives. Material which deviates from
expectations and depicts human life and beyond in its vastness. This is why,
barring horror, I find that genres like high fantasy bore me completely and
even then I prefer horror which isn't conventional. You have to tackle these
sub basements of moving pictures, the
art films to the strange smelling residue of ephemeral filmmaking and grotty
exploitation dustbins, with humour because intentional or unintentional it's
impossible to avoid humour within talking about them.
7) Finally, I have ambitions for
this blog as things pick up. To cover non-Abstract films as well, those that
don't qualify for the main point of the blog but are worth covering as they are
on a subject that interests me in lieu of point 7. To span a map of Abstract cinema. At least have a
Hall of Fame. To cover films which generate countless emotions - shock, confusion,
melancholy, bafflement, lack of comprehension, the sensation of time compacted
or expanded, disgust, distress, gibbering incoherently at illogic - and so
forth.
========
1) For anyone curious why the
reviews of the Phantasm series have
stopped at part 3 abruptly, I felt it was impossible to write anything really
rewarding and to the point of the blog. I really liked Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) as an example of low budget film
making, overcoming its severe restrictions to be as introspective and
fascinating as the original 1979 film, but Phantasm
V: Oblivion (2016) was such a flat climax, likely the last of the franchise
due to Angus Scrimm's passing, that
it was not only a bad choice to end those Halloween reviews on but not worth
posting reviews about Phantasm
further.
2) Major spoiler warning for Gantz - how badly episode twenty,
alongside its tonal rollercoaster throughout it, depicts killing off the major
female character in presentation. Imagine a human shield scenario which, due to
how the scene is depicted, could've been prevented with both people surviving
if she actually pushed the other person out of the way. The series does,
reading spoilers out of curiosity after a few weeks away from the show, have an
actual ending unlike what I previously thought but, as much as it temps me to
finish the series, especially as someone fascinated by this type of Japanese
genre storytelling which blends genres, there's as much to push me away from
investing in those final six episodes to complete everything.
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