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somehow, by definition, pure and free of such faults. I doubt if that would ever stand up to analysis. Any filming or photographing of anyone or anything, by a man or woman, is an attempt to exert power and to gain control.
The natural act of looking and seeing is an assertion of power and the desire for control. That is why we see in the first place, why we have eyes. It didn't happen by accident. Power and force in their many disguises rule this world absolutely. It is not a charm school. All human motivation and behavior is about power and control. This is not necessarily bad or undesirable. Every living thing has its own version of what is and what should be, and all of these versions are usually in conflict. The stronger ones survive and prevail. It's not difficult to imagine a better world than this one, but that does seem be what obtains here, at this time.
Filming by its nature is voyeuristicso is natural looking and seeingboth unavoidably involve a privileged spectator observing an "other." There's no way around this. You are no less voyeuristic looking out from inside the camera obscura of your own skull than you are peeping through a viewfinder or keyhole or watching a film or any other visual spectacle. Any seeing of another person, or seeing of anything, automatically makes that person or thing "exotic" simply because they are "other"not "you.'' The entire world and everything in it is "exotic," except for "you."
There was no real planned interaction. I made some notes about questions and chose a few texts I was interested in. The professorial tone at the beginning, which I meant to maintain throughout the film, but didn't, was a mocking of the "authority" behind the camera. In general there is a rather elaborate mockery going on in the entire film as it's being made. There are moments of what I still think are good poetry: one of them is when the actress/ghost on screen tells what will happen to her when she dies.
Much was made of the moment when she comes forward to touch the lens of the camera, but no one has ever noted that it was one of the very first instances in experimental, avant-garde films, of the self-reflection that became so prevalent in the seventies.
MacDonald:
A minor question. What is that moaning sound during the early part of
Say Nothing
? It certainly gives the film an eerie feel, almost a horror-film feel.
Noren:
The moaning sound came from some defect in the camera magazine . . . I think the drive belt on the take-up reel was out of alignment, or something like that. But you're quite right. It is a horror film, and also a sit-com, melodrama, documentary, and poetry of a strange sort.
MacDonald: Say Nothing
is your only sound film so far as I know.