the new film device | worlds within worlds
Published August 29, 2004
All of the devices noted here, the rooms, the journals, the film footage, remind me of the famous cabinets of Joseph Cornell or Rosamund Purcell, two artists capable of creating a whole atmosphere within a single piece of art. A richly layered and textured realm where we see what they want us to see. Check the credits for these films and you'll most often find that design firms had been hired, along with special stylists, to create these devices. What a job, I think as one who even now creates cabinets and has worked with Purcell and others on such projects. Imagine the films without these devices; they would be dull and void and not quite as scary. They would lose the spectacular affect of what it is to be completely mad.
Perhaps we should all put up a bulletin board or buy a blank journal; paste whatever we want or write every day - in a way, we do this when we blog. Ask of yourself, how much of your inner-world do you reveal and what are you bringing forward to show us. The whole lot like Frances Dolarhyde or is your world one of butterflies and Easter bunnies. If you're mad enough, perhaps your work could be featured next. There's a Samora in all of us - it just depends on what we do with it that helps determine how affecting it could be. Maybe we have found, after all, a new venue for our psyche. You never know.
sadi ranson-polizzotti
- the new film device | worlds within worlds
- Published: August 29, 2004
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- Section: Video
- Writer: Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti
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thanks, Ed --
i was wondering about Seven also and almost included it. there are so many films realluy, but latelyit seems like this has become more of an art. if you watch all the way through the credits, you'll see that specific designers were hired to handle the journals and wall art etc., designers like Chip Kidd, etc.
I'm also doing a book review of a new book that deals with this subject a bit - it touches on it anyway. As a former stylist and present-day cabinetist (like Joseph Cornell, i make my work in shadowboxes and then sell them through different venues like antique stores etc. - i'm looking for a gallery right now to do my newest show, (so if anybody hs any gallery connections, be in touch). It's really a great way to communicate a whole background to the story without actually filming it and showing it. The notebooks and the clip in the ring say so much with so few words, and that's amazingly economicial and smart. really freakin' smart.
anyway - thx. again. what other films have you seen this in? just curious...anybody?
cheers
sade
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Excellent post Sadi. I've thought about this many times, and remember giving it serious consideration after seeing Se7en. All those jounrnals. I found myself wondering if the whole book was really written on, or just the couple pages we see in the film.
Also of note is the famous "tongue tornado" manual in American Pie. I think i remember something in the commentary about all the crew took turns scribbling up a page or something.
Great work.