Session 2 tomorrow, Tuesday, 7:30 PM: Space (the terrestrial, earthbound kind), Identity, and What Cinema Asks of Us (the Audience)
Hi all,
For our second session, we’ll be moving across Red Desert, The Passenger, and Paris, Texas, three films that reshaped how modern cinema expresses itself. Rather than treating them as isolated works, we’ll look at them as a progression, how filmmakers began using space, duration, color, and camera movement to replace explanation, psychology, and even dialogue. We may also touch on whether there has been a counter-movement in contemporary cinema toward explaining everything within the frame and soundtrack.
A central question we’ll keep returning to is what these films ask of an audience. Each one depends on patience, attention, and a willingness to sit with uncertainty. They don’t reward speed or multitasking; they reward presence. That matters not only for how these films were first experienced, often communally, in theaters or festivals, but also for how they land today, in an era of streaming, pausing, and fragmented viewing.
In that regard, I highly recommend this short clip of now-famed director Claire Denis, who earlier in her career served as an assistant director to Wim Wenders on Paris, Texas. She recalls the experience of watching the film’s premiere at Cannes and the powerful connection between the film and the audience in that particular moment. It captures the unique relationship between art and viewer, sitting together in a theater, in the dark, sharing attention. (My link jumps directly to the relevant moment, though the full interview is well worth watching.)
We’ll spend time on a few iconic formal moments that demonstrate how cinema can “think” on its own, how a camera move or a stretch of silence can do work that dialogue usually does. We’ll also touch on the cultural moment of that decade, mid-70s to mid-80s, when questions of identity, alienation, and dislocation felt especially charged, and how different filmmakers approached those themes in strikingly different ways.
As always, no prior expertise required, just curiosity and attention. Engage and discuss to whatever extent you wish, and I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.
Ted
PS: A couple of folks keep their video off during the session which is 100% fine - I just want to make sure we don’t miss your participation so speak up whenever (since when you’re off camera I can’t discern whether you’re signaling an opportunity to pipe in).
Zoom link:
https://ucla.zoom.us/j/96038159949?pwd=p9NGJKmWrozTajAlsCabKbcfU90z7w.1
Meeting ID: 960 3815 9949 Passcode: 604332