On Sunday I attended the screening of “Beaches of Agnes” which, as mentioned by Jesse in a previous blog, is an autobiographical film by the French film director Agnes Varda. As an audience member having only seen “Cleo from 5 to 7” it was interesting reflecting on the director’s life without history or foreknowledge of her life and career.
I learned that Varda created around 46 Independent films, and from the clips shown throughout the film it seemed as though Varda constructed contemplative narratives discussing social and humanistic issues.
“Beaches of Agnes” is a colorful, whimsical, playful film that discusses heavier topics revolving around memory, time, love, and loss. During the panel session at the end of the film there was a discussion on how Varda’s self-reflection was based off of the people in which she surrounded herself and with whom she had relationships. Naturally, we all are weaved in our individual contexts. However, I wonder how individual they truly are considering that we all experience the same emotions. In the film Varda says “emotions are something we can not control.” John Dewey argued that “art is an exemplary form of human meaning-making” and Mark Johnson argues that “we must realize that aesthetics is about the conditions of experience as such, and art is a culmination of the possibility of meaning in experience.” I guess my main thought is how our individual circumstances evoke emotions. I wonder how as art-makers we attempt to control our individual emotions, in order to transcend them as a means for discussing origin. Is emotion the basis for all art and how is it that art goes from rationalization of emotion only to, hopefully, evoke emotion? Or is this not always the case…
No comments:
Post a Comment