VLVL2 (10) Realists and dreamers, 198

[Paul Nightingale]

From: Bandwraith at aol.com:
> 
> Isn't the very dependency of the collective on the larger system-
> which it selectively scopes, of course, for maximum cinematic
> capture of their own projected fantasies of domination and control-
> a hint that they have entered into the anter-rooms of annihilation?
> 
> The inverted message, here, it seems to me, is that the collective
> is all about projection rather than their professed ideology of
> detailing the truth that's out there.
> 
Firstly, one might insist that the group is simply a product of the society
it opposes: or, as Brock Vond would perhaps have it, the society that has
rejected their rebellion. Hence, their radicalism - as film-makers, their
aesthetic - is the product of their marginalised position: this seems to be
the point of the Hess chapter I cited in an earlier post, a view supported,
I think, by the chapter's on-going discussion of modes of production,
different working definitions of realism. As this argument would have it,
they might make different kinds of film if they had greater resources: the
up-coming passage about light (201-202) does seem to corroborate this view.
Rather more crudely, one eventually sells out, one way or the other. Well,
maybe.

Having said that, secondly, I think we should pay attention to the role of
Ditzah: in this chapter, she is clearly the most significant character with
regard to plot development. She is the group's editor (or one of them).
Editing, or montage, is what gives us the shock of the close-up (close-ups
produced within a single shit don't have the same impact, arguably).
Editing/montage involves the arbitrary juxtaposition of A and B. The
illusion of film depends on editing being invisible, or not noticed, which
is why the soundtrack is considered important: the interview with Frenesi
(195) and the reference to Krishna "[finding] the right music" (198) are
both examples of the soundtrack being used to disguise montage. In the
latter passage, there is an explicit connection made between montage and the
editing, for want of a better word, of personal relationships within the
group.