A new man is being born, fraught with all the fears and terrors and stammerings that are associated with a period of gestation. —Michelangelo Antonioni
Apocalypse? Revolution? Paradigm Shift? Are we the “new man” of Antonioni’s mid-20th century pronouncement? He was basically the same man as the old one but with out the church to tell him how to behave. In our time, the self-destructive impulse has become even more supercharged by technology. The studies of modern alienation on which Antonioni focused his lens in the 50’s and 60’s are generations deep in the cinema now, energized by global terrorism, industrial greed, and the abrupt crash of our eco-system.
The new man in the movies gestating this half-century later is, like Antonioni’s man, undergoing technological assimilation, but pressed to such extremes now that a character such as Neo in “The Matrix” must resist, with nearly superhuman effort, becoming hardwired into the battery compartment of the corporate machine.
In “Red Desert” Monica Vitti plays the archetype of the Madonna in labor. In The Book of Revelation, a beast is standing by to devour her offspring the instant it slips from her womb. In that story, the child is swept up to heaven and the woman escapes to the desert. In “Red Desert” there is no heaven. Her family is absorbed by the beast of progress and the Madonna is cast adrift in an industrial wasteland where every relationship succumbs to its toxins.
Though Antonioni said he believed progress was inexorable, he chose to depict someone who was not adjusting well to the new and improved. Why was she more interesting to him than those characters in the film that readily adapted? Is she the part of ourselves we are consigning to extinction? Monica Vitti’s character Giuliana hears sounds that the others in her crowd pay little or no attention to. “My eyes don’t know where to look,” she says. She is exquisitely sensitive and seems fragile as a moth. Does she represent our humanity? No. Can we say humanity is any less incarnate in our insatiable appetite for faster and more?
I wonder if it is the sacrifice of our senses that Antonioni laments. Discernible colors in “Red Desert” occur exclusively in the new industrialized world. Antonioni instructed his art department to paint buildings, trees, and even the ground to look dull and monochromatic.
When the primeval world becomes replaced by a man made one, our sense perceptions gradually mutate and attune to the artificial. Antonioni could be said to be aiming the camera over his shoulder with a sigh for what is lost, and then forward with a nod to the inevitable fire and our moth-like advance toward it.
This month’s blog will take the disaster in Japan for it’s theme. May those suffering the most find the strength to endure and may all of us join together for a solution.
I’m going to let a character named Billy Pritchard from my most recent finished feature film screen play make a statement on behalf of us all. Let’s just listen in without any preamble…
Billy steps forward and adjusts the microphone like he’s done it a hundred times.
BILLY-“Brothers and Sisters, let me have a quick word with you. I’m Billy Pritchard. Some of you may know who I am. It’s not important. I used to have a Sunday morning television show. That’s not why I’m here. I’m here because, well, you’re not ready to go home yet are you? Happy Independence to all of you!”
The crowd answers with enthusiasm.
Billy looks off stage now. The crowd sounds intensify. He’s getting a nod from the stage manager, so he goes on. He looks down at Sallassa who is waving at him with a big smile. Donna is next to her beaming with pride.
Jules is at the foot of the stage with the camera tilted up at Billy shouting directions.
JULES-“We’re live. Go preacher.”
BILLY-“I’ve always believed in heaven and hell.”
He pauses, gathering courage. Some in the crowd murmur their encouragement.
BILLY-“You know, unbelievers liked to make fun, but I ask you, believers and unbelievers alike, what more literal proof of a bona-fide hell does anyone need? As we live and breathe, the flaming bowels of the under world swell with fires from, petroleum and nuclear origins, in which you, me and our dear Mother Nature are slowly roasting.”
The crowd makes a collective groan.
BILLY-“The very air and skies are burning which was predicted by the prophets. You say “But the Lord was supposed to come and take us first.” SORRY! That happened, some say sixty years ago. Everybody knows the atomic bomb was the Antichrist. Stop pretending that you didn’t know that. Do the math.”
Blacky has been standing about half way back from the stage and he’s heard enough. Woolman stands next to him.
BLACKY-“Prove it.”
On a screen in his mind, Billy hunkers down into his familiar crouch. His body remains standing though, stage struck, trembling before the sight of Blacky. Then Billy sees the camera and gazes in to the tunnel of Jules’ lens.
BILLY-“You say, ‘ Well If this is hell, why didn’t God take my God fearing grandma?’”
BLACKY(shouts above him)-“This man’s speech is unclean.”
JULES-No sir. He’s talking about Hell in the bible.
BILLY-“I’m saying we become captives of that place even before we die.”
BLACKY-“That’s foolishness from a fool.”
BILLY-“I beg your pardon sir, but, the Lord promised,’I am retuning very soon,’ did he not? It’s been a long, long time since somebody said the Lord said that. I’m here to tell you the Judgment Day is past and over with and we did not pass over with it. So get over it.”
Woolman makes his very first utterance.
WOOLMAN-“Boo.” A few others join in
Billy cocks his head at him, puzzled, but manages to keep momentum.
BILLY-“We’ll pass with the gas of the underworld now with a grievous longing for the artifacts of heaven, which we gave up far too easily here on earth.”
BLACKY-“Hold your tongue.”
WOOLMAN-‘Boo.”
BILLY-“I know it’s a shock. I’m sorry. It’s hard to believe, but we’re damned.”
WOOLMAN-“Boo.”
A few more in the crowd join in. Jules is rubbernecking now, capturing the confrontation ground zero.
BILLY-“What if it’s true? Think about it.”
BLACKY-“Stop now, Voice of Satan.”
More booing ensues. Suddenly there is a screech in the crowd nearby. It is Bo, the fiddle player, strafing his strings. All eyes go to the noise on which the fiddler capitalizes.
BO-“I’ve never heard anyone talk like this man. I’m curious. Isn’t everybody else? I say let him speak. It’s only his opinion.”
With that his bow strikes fiddle strings once more. The crowd generally goes with him, some even applaud and whistle. Blacky shouts over the noise.
BLACKY-“That one is bogus too. They’re working this crowd.”
BO-“Come on. Let him perform. Everybody else has. Free speech is what 4th of July’s about.”
BLACKY-“Devil speaks in him.”
Jules shouts.
JULES-“Hells bells. It’s show business. Shut up and let a devil work.”
WOOLMAN-“Boo.”
Billy waits. Now the crowd rally’s for him. Billy has their attention and so must speak. He fixes his eyes on Blacky.
BILLY-“What’s your argument with me, brother? I’m not defending opinions, dogmas, ideologies, gossip, none of that.”
Woolman starts making for the back of the crowd.
BILLY-“Whichever way we’ve disagreed about how things ought to be done, there are really only five simple needs: clean air, food, water, shelter, and security. That’s all it takes to make this earth a paradise, for everyone. This is the meaning of the cross. That’s all there is. Don’t you keep asking yourself, how hard can it be? I do. Why are we waiting? Have we abandoned ourselves and fallen so far back that we could not even see the Lord when he came and divided His winners from The Enemy’s losers?”
Billy claps his hands for emphasis.
BILLY-“Boom! The righteous, just, off they went without notice. Nobody bothered to tell the losers. Is that it?”
Crowd answers a resounding “no”.
BILLY-“I hope not either. But, friends and strangers, believers and non-believers, we don’t have to live like this. Heaven exists for us now if we want it. This earth can be a paradise. We could provide the necessities for ourselves, and each other. The command, to love one another, grants us total freedom to achieve that dream. That awful smog in the air is the burning consequence of our refusal to do so thus far.’
WOOLMAN-‘Hypocrite.”
Billy’s look into Jules’ lens lets us know he knows is a close up.
BILLY-“Ladies and gentlemen. That man has followed me for days pretending he did not have the gift of speech. That he is choosing to reveal his voice now, I find startlingly suspicious.”
Blacky-“You are a disgraced preacher.”
To cut it off, Billy quickly folds hands and bows head.
BILLY-“Thank you for your time and attention ladies and gentlemen. From the bottom of my heart, I ask your blessing and forgiveness. May the Lord bless and forgive us all.”
He surrenders the microphone and plunges into the crowd after Woolman.
One spokesman for the Chinese, when given the chance to comment to the west about the revelations published in Wikileaks, simply said that they were of no consequence. The politicians in the world understand that their diplomatic counterparts are all presenting a certain image to each other and an entirely different image to their trusted allies. It’s no big deal. Though it was an embarrassment to those who were outed, it should come as no shock to anyone.
Information control is an age-old pastime, older than the good book itself. For every embarrassing secret revealed on Wikileaks, there are a hundred thousand like it buried forever. Fortunately, lies make the truth stand out in higher relief. All attempts to obscure truth only help clarify it.
When leaders spy on people, they wish to know the truth. It slips from their grasp when they try to control it. Spying and truth control are futile. We need not invade each other’s privacy to find the truth because, thanks to the movies and storytelling, we already know each other’s deepest secrets.
No responsible person can be lied to. We lie to ourselves. Those lies are the most dangerous. I only believe the lies of others after I have told them to myself. If I’d stop telling myself lies, all others’ lies would stand out. The truth lives out in the open where anyone who desires to take personal responsibility for it can know it.
Lies do not stand for truth. They do not change the facts. Lies are like gas, invisible, but among the most obvious things in the world. The air we breathe contains a variety of gases but a body requires oxygen. Truth is everywhere mingled with lies, but our survival depends on truth. We can tell pretty quickly when we’re breathing something else.
Popular stories expose the common lies we all tell ourselves, precursors to the kind of lies our leaders feel it necessary to tell us. The enlightened storyteller gives away all secrets because he or she understands that there are none worth keeping. Popular stories contain endless examples of characters coming to terms with truth. Accounts of a hero’s triumph in a story counteract attacks of hopelessness brought on by revelations of cowardly maneuvers such as those exposed on Wikileaks.
Official lies are born of the same denials that we all must confront personally before we can ever expect to transform them collectively. News and gossip are constant reminders of the selfish, indulgent sides of our nature. Stories and movies contain compelling examples of the courage and conviction humans are capable of summoning to achieve their highest potential in service to the common good.
How did media incubated from a trickle of primitive symbols and signals to a close-knit network of drums and voices, through the enlightened fountainhead of the printed word to the digital pipeline of our present information age? What largely propelled this transformation is the struggle to gain control of “the official story”. The nightly news is a primary vendor of “the official story”. It’s a viewpoint, someone’s account of past events and a claim of authority to load the time capsule of history.
The official story proposes to make everyone’s point of view the same. However, just as no two camera’s can occupy the same spot at the same time, neither can two individuals see things exactly the same way. This accounts for all cultural ambiguities. The official story adopts a viewpoint, takes a stand, polarizes ambiguities embedded in our culture, converting them to prejudices. When we adopt these prejudices, it sets up an artificial need for affiliate groups.
Polarized individuals are powerless. The powerless are eager to merge with affiliate group. When we adopt the viewpoint of the leadership, we defend their opinions as our own. Relying on strength in numbers, we look to our party for the power to assert our prejudices over those of the opposing party. When the leadership betrays our trust and acts for its own selfish gain, it perversely appears as if we backed them.
Just as no photographic image can encompass the total picture, no official, or their story can claim to have done all the necessary listening and thinking for us. We must fill in the missing gaps with our own story and the stories of those around us, particularly those with whom we differ most. Good listening requires at least a momentary suspension of prejudice.
Good movies bridge the artificial gulfs that divide us by allowing cultural ambiguities to exist, unencumbered by prejudice. The best movies open our minds, coaxing from us a suspension of disbelief. The best stories condition us to genuinely listen and reward us with bona-fide insights that safeguard us from any need for an official story.
A new psychedelic movie I watched last week thrust me back to bardos I had not wandered since the 70’s. “Enter the Void” concerns the “Tibetan Book of the Dead”. The movie is shocking and heavy-handed. The acting isn’t really very good, but the film is relentless once it hooks you. You’re glad they’re not better actors or it might leave a deeper scar. At more than one point I had to take my eyes off the screen. It was too long. So is hell. I looked around at the audience. No one was breathing. The movie theater felt like a Petri dish. Images and sound suspended us in a synthesis of color/shadow, movement, noise/music, editing, “high” art and blood red drama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRxDP–e-Y
For an entirely different example of psychedelic cinema, have a look at another recent popular film, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.” This hilarious and prolonged derangement of the senses comes courtesy of the video game that is teenager Scott Pilgrim’s life. Hallucinogenic stories like these are able to sell their hyper-realities thanks to a firmly established psychedelic appetite in the modern audience. Like acid tests, the lens tracks themes of Pilgrim’s progress from random to ego shaking. Scott racks up more and more multidimensional payoffs as he learns new rules and adapts to shifting circumstances.
It is good to see the psychedelic experience imaginatively presented in popular movies because of how much that can help us think outside the box.
Drugs get all the credit for psychedelic culture but motion pictures have always probed those possibilities. As far back as the 1929 silent classic “Man With A Movie Camera,” pioneer filmmakers undertook experiments to alter perceptions. They ingeniously employed superimposition, speeding up or slowing down, bending, blending, splintering, splicing; wielding light and shadow to peck away surface appearance and reveal essence. The current reach toward perfecting 3D and digital FX are the continuation of that tradition.
Before film came along altered states were cataloged by anthropologists, but early hallucinogenic accounts turn up everywhere from the Book of Revelation to the Rig Veda. Who can say which visions were drug influenced and which were not? The “Tibetan Book of the Dead” catalogs elevator stops, or “bardo’s,” of a soul’s journey back to reincarnation after death without mention of drugs. Timothy Leary re-published the same text as a tripping manual.
Drug experimentation became a fad in the 1960’s. Hallucinogens inoculate culture with what medicine societies and shaman of many traditions have known for millennia. Plant medicines provided an alternative perspective, a glimpse outside the box. Sound familiar? The digital revolution carries this potential now.
These days “outside the box” is a commonplace term for innovative thinking and drugs are by no means the only way to achieve it. Movie makers keep on paving the way in popular culture. Whether or not you ever ingested hallucinogens, we all experience them through their influence in music, movies, fashion, advertising, games and so on. For half a century now, psychedelic culture has branched upward into mass consciousness.
The digital revolution, it was said by drug guru Timothy Leary shortly before his death, is the new LSD. It allows for an increase of information to pass between ourselves and the larger living, breathing organism of which we are all part. Psychedelics work to inhibit the brain filter that prevents overload. Take that filter off and senses, emotions, memories expand, awareness roots and blooms. With psychedelics then, and cyberspace now, heaven and hell are states of mind.
A new man is being born, fraught with all the fears and terrors and stammerings that are associated with a period of gestation. —Michelangelo Antonioni