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Nude in opening section of Snow's
Presents
(1980).
issue for me. However, exactly how ''independent" anyone can be is a question we'd better not try to get into now.
MacDonald:
I suppose it surfaced in the case of
Presents
because the film came out at a time when everyone was talking about the eroticized female body as the subject of the male gaze. This film seemed to rebel against that concern: it focuses in on a naked woman's body at the beginning, and then in the third long section where you jump from one shot to the next, naked women's bodies are used often. Were you addressing that issue or . . .
Snow:
Yes, I guess I was. It was probably the first time I'd done something specifically as a means of entering a current dialogue. The way you said "rebel against that concern" is interesting. It reminds me of that horrifying phrase "politically correct." Is having
some
differences of opinion with
some
feminist/social theory "rebelling"? Is the "concern" so defined that it can't be discussed, only approved?
Looking for "what does this mean?" first and not experiencing what is happening in its sensual complexity is a terribly wasteful, ass-backwards way of experiencing my films or any other work of art. I have never made a work to convey
a
meaning. I work with areas of meaning and know that there are as many meanings as there are viewers. What is
there
in the concrete, phenomenological sense is of first importance. You seem to see all my other films, except this one, that way and I appreciate your observations. The problems here seem to be as much yours as the film's.