Film as Inspiration
The Clouds Of Sils Maria
Welcome to film as inspiration. This little segment, which will show up in your inbox every once in a while, draws writing inspiration from film. Inspiration once meant; to breathe into. Also; divine guidance.
Clouds of Sils Maria
The Clouds of Sils Maria is available for streaming on the Criterion Channel.
There were many beautiful and profound passages in this film, but one of my favorites was:
“The text is like an object. It’s gonna change perspective based on where you’re standing.”
This line is spoken to an actress trying to inhabit a character she finds detestable. The character is a middle-aged woman. The actress, when she was younger, played the character’s opposite— a young woman who cruelly seduces and discards her. But now she’s taken the role of the older woman in a new rendition of the play. She’s having trouble inhabiting this new character because she can’t release the conceptions she developed when she played the younger character so long ago.
There are so many ways to read films, and one film can be read in countless ways, similarly to literature. As subjective humans, I think it’s impossible to watch a film or read a book the exact same way twice.
Have you experienced this? Read any books or watched any films that changed shape as you re-experienced them? Do you have “touchstone” films or books that you come back to again and again?
If we contemplate the question the assistant is asking, then we contemplate our own subjectivity.
Not the limits of it, but its possibilities.
If we’re fully aware of our subjectivity and what we bring to the table (or as aware as we can be), then we are able to step out of our own assumptions and experiences and experience something in a new way.
Have you seen Clouds of Sils Maria? Share your experience of watching the film in the comments. I tried to watch this film when it first came out, but I was too distracted. It requires full attention, but was well worth it, in my opinion.