Jill,
That word MATTER, which I believe has a Neo-Marxist inflection in Jean-Marie Straub's formulation, prevents me from agreeing that the line you cite functions as a poetics for me. Though I could say that the material of Roberto Rossellini's film PAISAN resisted me recently when I tried to cut language out of it while viewing it for the first time. However, that was more a matter of six distinct sections with different screenwriters than the physical quantity of film up in the projection booth. The fleeting nature of spoken language, subtitles, and visual image as I try to decide what to catch before it becomes even more difficult to retrieve . . . that aspect strikes me as more central to my poetics.
Enjoyed your mis-reading of three for there. I'm sure Daniele Huillet endured innumerable THERE'S from the overbearing Jean-Marie Straub, so the more instances of that word which can be perceived by a reader of those two lines the more appropriate the interpretation.
Barry
On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:52:48 +1100, Jill Jones <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Hi Barry,
>
>The line 'Matter resists us / you can�t just cut anywhere.' is a
>poetics for you as well?
>
>Initially when I read these two lines:
>
>Don�t start there-ing me!
>There�s no there!
>
>... and it's just me doing my usual quick mis-reading, I read there-
>ing as three-ing (OK, my eyes are bad these days), so nicely there
>were three theres.
>
>Cheers,
>Jill
>
>__________________________
>Jill Jones
>[log in to unmask]
>
>website: www.jilljones.com.au
>blog: rubystreet.blogspot.com
>
>On 20/01/2011, at 6:14 AM, Barry Alpert wrote:
>
>> STRAUB/HUILLET AT WORK ON VITTORINI�S SICILIA!
>>
>> via Pedro Costa
>>
>>
>> You�re serving stones in gravy.
>> I don�t trust your fanaticism.
>> Matter resists us / you can�t just cut anywhere.
>> I worked on my framing.
>>
>> Masterpieces which hold together because of the soup
>> impression--we resist verisimilitude.
>> Don�t start there-ing me!
>> There�s no there!
>>
>> Cutting film / cutting time;
>> you can�t turn your actors into statues.
>> I told him, �That�s a good take.
>> Do another for me.�
>>
>> Whether we should have a see-saw movement--it�s not chewing gum.
>> The cameraman already had an ax in his hand.
>>
>>
>>
>> STRAUB/HUILLET AT WORK ON KAFKA�S AMERIKA
>>
>> via Harun Farocki
>>
>>
>> If I had an apple I wouldn�t cross my arms
>> I�d like to feel a colon there
>> No pause just a hard caesura
>>
>> We�ll pull at it till it explodes
>> We must destroy all the pauses
>> They�ll only remain below the surface
>>
>> Perhaps speak in the movement
>> That would be the solution
>> This time don�t rush the word �photograph�
>> That was another new version
>> We have a rich harvest of the other version
>> We�ll have to take it apart
>>
>>
>> Barry Alpert / Silver Spring MD US / 1-19-11 (2:11 PM)
>>
>> When I first registered that the National Gallery of Art would be
>> screening two documentaries by established filmmakers on the process
>> of composition of a collaborating couple of filmmakers, I hoped that
>> I might be able to produce a pair of doubly ekphrastic cine-poems.
>> Despite difficulty revising each intuitive initial draft, I'm happy
>> with the final product. The second poem first appeared as a snap on
>> 12-22-10, 3 days after I had witnessed the source for the first
>> poem, Pedro Costa's film "Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie?"
>> Perhaps on another occasion I might publish them in reversed order,
>> but here I wanted to provide you first with a poem you hadn't
>> encountered previously, followed by its companion. Let me offer as
>> well a link to an out-take from Costa's film (with English
>> subtitles) which illuminates Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet's
>> relationship.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGDbXcNtaRM&feature=related
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