cassavetes at work

já disse que adoro este homem? I shall say it again.

I won't call my work entertainment. It's exploring. It's asking questions of people, constantly. How much do you feel? How much do you know? Are you aware of this? Can you cope with this? A good movie will ask you questions you don't already know the answers to. Film is an investigation of our lives. What we are. What our responsibilities in life are - if any. What we are looking for. Why would I want to make a film about something I already understand? People have said that my films are very difficult to watch, that they're experiences you are put through rather than ones you enjoy, and it's true.

(foto via criterion)

Words should only be used when we need to delve deeper into the heart of things

Words should say everything an image can't. Before having characters speak, we should examine everything they could express, with their eyes, above all with body language, certain kinds of interaction, certain ways of behaving. Words should only be used when we need to delve deeper into the heart of things. In short, ideas must be expressed on film using appropriate images and sounds, and dialogue should only be used as a last resort.

Robert Bresson

para encontrar o verdadeiro significado de uma obra de arte, devemos procurar no mundo interior em que estas foram concebidas

Toda creación es epifánica, y toda creación nos libera, pues la creación se basa en liberar el propio sufrimiento al que el ser es condenado, en el que el ser ha sido arrojado y en el que se halla inmerso. Solo el ser humano completo, o que se halla en la búsqueda de su ser, vivencia cuán insoportable es el hombre para sí y es por esto que necesita de la creación, de un anhelo, para amar y sentirse amado.

(...)

Es en el dualismo de lo que estamos hechos, del bien y el mal, del ánima y el ánimus, del ying y el yang, de donde toda creación nace. El artista y el místico no solo completan lo creado, sino que se completan a sí mismos, son su propio Dios, son Hermes, el arquetipo del sí- mismo; son los héroes de su propia vida y de la creación humana en sí misma.

Solo siendo conscientes y comprendiendo esto, podemos ver el cine, así como el arte, como una oportunidad para evolucionar, para ser, permitirse ser uno mismo; para conocerse y poder concebir todo el misterio que nos rodea y que alojamos en nosotros.

ensaio de Francisca Pageo

bless you, Cassavetes

To have a philosophy is to know how to love and to know where to put it. But you can’t put it everywhere. You’ve gotta be a priest saying, "yes, my son, yes, my daughter, bless you". But people don’t live that way. They live with anger and hostility and problems and lack of money, lack of - you know, tremendous disappointments in their life. So what they need is a philosophy. I think what everybody needs is a way to say "where and how can i love, can i be in love so that i can live with some degree of peace?" and so that’s why i have a need for the characters to really analyse love, discuss it, kill it, destroy it, hurt each other, do all that stuff in that war, in that word polemic and picture polemic of what life is. The rest of the stuff really doesn’t interest me. It may interest other people but i have a one-track mind. All I’m interested in is love.

John Cassavetes from A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (via Emissions in the Dark)

Man is a genius when he is dreaming.

For me, filmmaking combines everything. That’s the reason I’ve made cinema my life’s work. In films painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film. A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet. Movie directors, or should I say people who create things, are very greedy and they can never be satisfied… That’s why they can keep on working. I’ve been able to work for so long because I think next time, I’ll make something good. To have not seen the films of Satyajit Ray is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun. Man is a genius when he is dreaming.

by Akira Kurosawa (via Hedgehog in the Fog)

notes to self

• You don’t have to achieve great things by the time you’re 25
• You have intrinsic value above and beyond your perceived utility to other people and society at large.
• You don’t have to have sex, or have sex in any way that you find uncomfortable or unpleasant, to keep anyone’s love or good opinion of you. They didn’t love you or think very well of you to start with if they demand it.
• You don’t have to stay with someone who isn’t meeting your emotional or sexual needs because they need you, or you’ve been with them for awhile, or you need to be in a relationship. You need you. Your time is your own and it is finite.
• It’s ok to work at a job you enjoy that doesn’t make you miserable even if it’s not a career and it won’t “lead to anything.”
• Your life is not a narrative. It is not leading to anything, there is no overarching thesis, it does not have themes beyond the usual shared cultural experiences of your time and place. This is ok. It does not mean that your life is without purpose or meaning.
• It’s ok not to like or get along with the vast majority of people you encounter, so long as you afford them the same respect, courtesy and dignity that they afford you.
• Expensive is not always better.
• Failure is temporary if you’re still alive.
• People are both much better and much worse than you’d suspect, but usually not all at once.
• Stop thinking of your future self as a different person and it will be easier to prevent money and health problems.
• Let people help you, lean on them when you need to, and be available to help, but don’t swing too far in either direction. Try to carry your half of the life basket as evenly as you can.
• Set boundaries, and do not be afraid to kick people out of your life who disregard them. You will not end up alone and unloved. People who love you will be ok with your boundaries.
• Your power does not come from money or beauty, but from seeing life steadily and wholly, from a curious and thoughtful mind, and from your ability to say no when you want to, and yes when you want to, and I don’t know when you don’t know.
• There will be bad times, maybe lots of bad times, but not only bad times.
• Love will not heal the wounds in your soul, but love can give you the impetus to begin the work of healing yourself.
• Life might be a long series of starting over, and that’s alright.
• You’re really cool, you’re really beautiful, you’re really special. Really. Not to everyone, but to a lot of someones sometimes. 

from Things I want to tell people, that I wish people had told me

acaricias o mundo em vez de agarrá-lo

'All your stories are so touchingly young. You say far more about the impressions which things inspire in you than about the things and objects themselves. That is lyrical poetry. You caress the world, instead of grasping it.'
'So my writing is worthless?'
Kafka grasped my hand,
'I did not say that. Certainly these little stories have a value for you. Every written word is a personal document. But art…'
'Art is different,' I continued bitterly.
'Your written is not yet art,' said Kafka firmly. 'This description of feelings and impressions is most of all a hesitant groping for the world. The eyes are still heavy with dreams. But in time that will cease and then perhaps the outstretched groping hand will withdraw as if caught by the fire. Perhaps you will cry out, stammer incoherently, or grind your teeth together and open your eyes wide, very wide. But - these are only words. Art is always a matter of the entire personality. For that reason it is fundamentally tragic.'

from Conversations with Kafka by Gustav Janouch

you have to make films from the perspective of the weak

Do you believe that movies are still an effective way to inform young people?

I'm not talking about education. What I'm after is telling the truth. Movies are entertainment, but that doesn't stop us from telling the truth through them. In Harada's film you get Beethoven on the soundtrack and Koji Yakusho as the chief of police. It's a hymn to the cops, but it was those same cops that pushed those kids to go as far as they did. If it's a profit you're after, there are other ways to make money than by making films. Me, I try to at least remain truthful when I make my films. Also, a true filmmaker doesn't make films from the point of view of those in power. To me, that's a fundamental rule: you have to make films from the perspective of the weak. Take Akira Kurosawa, for instance. His films were always about the downtrodden.

entrevista a Koji Wakamatsu (via Mignight Eye)

o realizador japonês faleceu hoje, 5 dias após ter sido atropelado por um taxi em Tokyo.

Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you.

But your solitude will be a support
and a home for you,
even in the midst of very
unfamiliar circumstances,
and from it you will find all your paths.

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Most people don't know what they want or feel.

And for everyone, myself included, It's very difficult to say what you mean when what you mean is painful. The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to... As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all, we must dare to fail. You must have the courage to be bad - to be willing to risk everything to really express it all.

John Cassavetes

a mix perfeita.

para quem duvidar que é possível tornar duas horas de discursos sobre o espaço, ciência e religião interessantes e inspiradores (e ainda conseguir encaixar Arcade Fire lá pelo meio), que oiça esta mix. vale mesmo a pena. plus, é uma óptima forma de relaxar quando chega a hora de ir para a cama.

direitinha para o meu mp3.

↬ an existential life