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but the reality of "now." But of course we no sooner apprehend this present moment than it is past. (I read somewhere that the average person thinks that the "present" lasts for about three seconds.)
We invented cinema deliberately as a device to allow us to dream while waking, and to give us access to areas of the mind that were previously only available in sleep. It was no accident that the first filmmakers immediately seized on dream device and method as the first, essential film "language," as though the cinema was specifically invented for the objectification and articulation of those things.
Anyway, in
The Lighted Field
"dream of story" and "story of dream" are closely interwoven as themes. It is also a ghost story in a sense. It was calculated in a way to be a posthumous work, a tale told from the grave, and of course, in time it will become exactly that. That's another narrative element in the film, an elaborate memento mori. This isn't unduly morbid. The best possible mental state to be in is one in which you are clearly conscious of your personal mortality. Clear and constant recognition of this will energize you in a way that nothing else can. At the very least, it keeps you alert. A friend of mine once calculated that since the speed of the revolution of the earth around its own axis is some 877 miles per hour, that is the exact speed at which your grave approaches.
In general,
The Adventures of the Exquisite Corpse
is a reworking of what has to be the world's oldest story, "the fool's progress," how the fool became wise. There are hundreds of versions and variations, but the story is always essentially the same: the young fool leaves home to set off down the road of the world, hoping to find the great treasure that is hidden behind the veil of the world's illusions, behind the screen of the movie of the world, as it were. After many dangers and hardships, and by the exercise of strength and cunning, the fool tears away the veil and discovers that what is behind it is "nothing." This is valuable knowledge: it is the treasure, the "Pearl of Great Price," and in recognizing this, the fool becomes wise, a wise fool, and can see the world for what it is. That is the larger framework of
The Adventures of the Exquisite Corpse:
the individual parts function as lesser wheels that move within the larger wheel of the whole.
Another narrative aspect of the film is about the famous journey to the "other world." In my program notes when I released the film, I identified the "other world" as being "this world," which I hope is self-explanatory. And yet another narrative level is that of the entire film as after-death hallucination, in the tradition of
Sunset Boulevard
[1950] and a great novel by Flann O'Brien,
The Third Policeman
.
MacDonald:
Unlike
Charmed Particles, The Lighted Field
is not arranged seasonally; at times you play with winter and summer views out your window; each time we track past the window, the view outside has