Four Self-Interviews About Cinema: the short films of director Norman Reedus
Page 6
A:I think where you go sideways is in thinking that simply because an individual is more unconscious than conscious it is the same as saying we ought to be unconscious. We are nothing if not for our consciousness, and even if it does make us mewling little cowards, even if we’re afraid of our shadows, well, at least we’re something. Really, when you assert unconsciousness as the appropriate identity, all you’re suggesting is that majority rules, when nothing should be further from the truth.
C:So, let me understand—you think the film is downer because somebody decides to be an artist?
A:Ha. Yeah, I suppose. Or if not a downer, at least a horror—definitely a horror. The Artistic Man, the man who allows more the unconscious aspects of himself to be his definition, there’s always something frightening and destructive about that, when not kept in check. You really want your kid to be Rimbaud? To be…I don’t know…Sid Vicious or Darby Crash? No. You want them to be Godard, Bob Dylan, Duras—brilliant but aware enough to find meaning.
C:And barring that, I suppose you want them to be a clerk at REI or a wallpaper salesman?
A:That’s a stretch. The man in the film is a Lawyer, not a bartender or some chump humping a retail gig—are you devaluing the study, refinement, and practice of Law? Law, that which allows us civilization—Reason devoid of Passion.
C:You’re quoting Legally Blonde at me?
A:Har har. I’m just pointing out that it isn’t a choice between Artist or Shoe Clerk it’s a tension between Control or Not, Meaning or Lack.
C:Artist or Lawyer—well fine, why is either a horror?
A:Well, not everyone is an artist, which I think is a truth, something to be celebrated. Unconsciousness is not Art—unconsciousness filtered through consciousness is Art and this is what is destroyed in the film, what we witness and (as I was saying) by trick of being first imprinted on as Comedian celebrate the destruction of—the death of that filter a death which allows a void to rush out. The film is about the death of potential identity and the birth of nothing.
C:The film’s about that? Or your sidestepping and free-associations are about that?
A:If you can explain the difference, I’ll be glad to answer you.
“I Thought Of You”
Originally appeared in the Montage: Cultural Paradigm (Sri Lanka)
September 25th, 2011