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God, UFOs, spirituality, art … a bit like losing yourself in a hallway of talismen, the empty invocations reverberating off the walls. Not that I’ve anything against the idea, mind you–of cinematic art, or “aahhrrt,” the more accessible scare quotes variant–only the uses to which it’s all too commonly put. Here’s an example: art as a rubric that privileges before the fact, as if close, burrowing analysis–this is what’s happening, this is how it’s done, through assorted camera angles and movements (close-ups that implicate, distant shots that hold you at arm’s length), blocking and editing strategies, the whole panoply of technical intuitions and ideas in search of a desired end (or maybe not even that, just inspired serendipity)–weren’t enough to get the point across. Can’t stand by itself, in other words, unless the talismanic spell is cast, the rubric reverentially intoned, so all the sacred attitudes can conveniently rush in–which reminds me a little of high school athletes crossing themselves before shooting the next free throw or taking the next cut at the plate: irrelevant to the processes at hand, which ultimately are about technical skill and physiology and psyche, a mesh of largely analyzable factors. Though obviously if it helps to get the job done …
