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Inside the time-crystal of darkness and light

Notes

Inside the time-crystal of darkness and light

1. 11. 2015 / AUTHOR: Fred Kelemen
About the ethics, aesthetics and technics of the film-image

In the filmic cosmos space is time and light, equal in the universe where distances e. g. are measured in lightyears. The relation of light and time, which cannot be understood purely intellectually - without a sublime, intuitive recognition any understanding would be incomplete and empty and mere superficial - , forms the heart of the art of film, its poetical truth and metaphysical life. The essential elements light/darkness and movement build up the cine-graphic, the time-crystal of the filmic image. Entering this time-crystal of darkness and light in its permanent flow, we meet in its center the "cinegraphic moment" as the pacemaker of the organism which every single movie is.

Film as an art is not a sum or a mix  of the other arts. Film is an art distinctive of all the others. It owns an element which makes it unique: The "cinegraphic moment".

The "cinegraphic moment" is the nucleus, the heart of the art of film. Beyond story and plot and subject the "cinegraphic moment" is what makes a film a film and distinguishes it from literature, painting, music and any other art. The "cinegraphic moment" is a space which lies beyond words. Entering the space of the "cinegraphic moment" means to enter the totality of the poetry of the presence of body and time - of manifestation and transience, of fragility and eternity.

To detect the "cinegraphic moments "- in reality, in prose or drama literature or wherever - and to make them gleam on the screen is the task of a filmmaker.

Let's enter the time-crystal of darkness and light.