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doolhoofd
discobol
Registration Date: 02-03-2011
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A critique on spectacle society inspired by Jean Baudrillard, but really just some loose-ass thinking for fun. Yes, complicated style. Yes, it’s weird. Yes, this is what I do for fun. Love it. Hate it. Wha’eva.
Working on full translation but some expressions just don’t fit or even exist in English so could take a while; thought I’d give you guys a little taste of things to come.
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The desire for spectacle is more powerful than the instinct to self-preservation, it is her one must count on.
- Baudrillard
In the apotheosis of the spectacle film Contact Jodie Foster stares through her cocoon into outer space with wide open, watery eyes while letting the words "It's so beautiful... They should have sent a poet..." slip from her clearly visible, all too visible lips: a scene which exposes the transparency of the whole movie in a single stroke. The movie is about nothing. Nothing is revealed, there’s nothing to see, the oozing sentimentality of the whole film is just another special effect to hide this nothingness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzTHC6JSUvM
During the ice-cold extortion of sentiment from the fascinated viewer, the movie shows its true face [sic]. In an impeccably directed magnification of an empty spectacularity, a squaring, a raising to the n-th power of an empty spectacularity through contact lens Foster the viewer is pulled through his/her own emotions - carefully depicted and soberly simulated on a tightly construed and carefully lit film set - with the chains of his own naïve desire for spectacle. Spectacle and spectator exchange place, are multiplied with each other, copulate in a promotion stunt which is as emotional as it is fake, fuse into a spectral total spectacle which henceforth stretches until far beyond the nebula- and star system sprinkled, trumpet shaped space of the cosmos. What was Jodie looking at when she feigned those emotions, the lamps on the set? Or was she just staring into nothingness? It makes no difference, the scene and by extension the whole movie is and remains a staging of nothing. The digitally purified images of outer space reveal absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, nor do those of Foster’s acting, but they are resplendent with a purity as dead as it is liquid and an abyssal, crystalline transparency: the transparency of the spectacle, the transparency of the spectator, the transparency of both. – Cue hypertrophy hyperspectacle in void
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De spektakeldrift is krachtiger dan het instinct tot zelfbehoud, op haar moet men rekenen.
- Baudrillard
In de apotheose van de spektakelfilm Contact staart Jodie Foster met wijd opengesperde, tranende ogen door de wand van haar cocon de wijde ruimte in, en laat ze de woorden "It's so beautiful... They should have sent a poet..." uit haar goed zichtbaar, al te zichtbaar bevende lippen glippen: een scène die op kristalheldere wijze de transparantie van de hele film aan het licht brengt. De film draait om niets. Er wordt niets onthuld, er valt niets te zien, de sentimentalitiet waarmee Contact is overgoten is slechts een evenzoveelste special effect om dit te verhullen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzTHC6JSUvM
Tijdens de ijskoude afpersing van sentiment bij de gefascineerde kijker toont de film zijn ware gelaat [sic]. Gedurende een smetteloos geregisseerde uitvergroting van een lege spectaculariteit, een kwadratering, een potentialisering, een verheffing tot de n-de macht van een lege spectaculariteit via contactlens Foster wordt de toeschouwer met de ketens van zijn eigen naïeve spektakeldrift doorheen zijn/haar zorgvuldig in beeld gebrachte, op een strak geconstrueerde en nauwkeurig belichte filmset vastgelegde, bloednuchter gesimuleerde emoties gesleurd. Spektakel en toeschouwer wisselen van plaats, worden met elkaar vermenigvuldigd, copuleren in een even geëmotioneerde als fake-e promotiestunt, smelten samen tot onontwarbare onderdelen van een spectraal totaalspektakel dat zich voortaan uitstrekt tot ver buiten de hier en daar met nevelsluiers en sterrenstelsels besprenkelde, trompetvormige ruimte van de kosmos. Waar keek Jodie naar terwijl ze haar ontroerende ontroering veinsde? Naar de lampen op de set? Of staarde ze gewoon maar wat in het ijle voor zich uit? Het maakt geen verschil, de scène is en blijft net als de hele film een opvoering van niets. De digitaal gepurificeerde beelden van outer space ontullen absoluut niets bijzonders, die van Fosters acteerwerk evenmin, ze schitteren enkel door een even liquide als dode zuiverheid en een abyssale, kristallijnen transparantie: de transparantie van het schouwspel, de transparantie van de toeschouwer, de transparantie van beiden. - Cue hypertrofie hyperspektakel in leegte
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.:::GENERATIONS PASS:::.
.:::CIVILISATIONS DIE:::.
.:::THE BLiNK OF AN EYE:::.
.:::IN GALACTIC TIME:::.
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24-07-2011 18:17 |
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BattleDrone 
2161... the future.
Registration Date: 30-12-2005
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Have you ever seen "Death Proof" from Quentin Tarantino?
Now that's a movie about nothing and there are dozens of others.
But Contact is a great movie in my opinion, it's just like life itself. Sometimes events that raise a lot of tension are actually very uninteresting while "everyday life" routine shit can have so much deeper meaning because emotions or feelings get involved.
Your analysis fails to see the beauty of it all, you seem to be after a big plot like Star Wars or something in that style. In fact the quote you use says a lot about your expectations.
7.4/10 on IMDB isn't all that bad or?
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 Check my soundcloud (exclusive tracks on there)
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25-07-2011 10:17 |
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doolhoofd
discobol
Registration Date: 02-03-2011
Posts: 324
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Haven't seen Death Proof.
Don't take it too seriously. Baudrillard wrote in a radical and provocative way, I like to do the same. A nuanced analysis just wouldn't have the same effect.
The beauty of it all, yeah, that's just it: the movie is one big special effect, including the tenderness and emotion. You don't really get to see anything. Why don't we get to see the alien's true form? Why does it take the form of her dad? I mean, that's just sick. Just another cover-up to hide the nothingness underneath all the spectacle.
Thanks for reading & understanding what you read!
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.:::GENERATIONS PASS:::.
.:::CIVILISATIONS DIE:::.
.:::THE BLiNK OF AN EYE:::.
.:::IN GALACTIC TIME:::.
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25-07-2011 12:01 |
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doolhoofd
discobol
Registration Date: 02-03-2011
Posts: 324
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full Dutch version available @ http://doolhoofd.deviantart.com/#/d41l8rl
English version will be posted there as well when ready; can't fit it in one post, 10000 characters max
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.:::GENERATIONS PASS:::.
.:::CIVILISATIONS DIE:::.
.:::THE BLiNK OF AN EYE:::.
.:::IN GALACTIC TIME:::.
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25-07-2011 20:44 |
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doolhoofd
discobol
Registration Date: 02-03-2011
Posts: 324
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I was thinking about the aliens. Why don't we get to see their true form? Because that would be showing too much. It would turn Contact into just another movie about aliens, only this time they're friendly.
But by replacing the alien with Ellie's dad, they show too little. The whole point of the movie evaporates: suddenly it's not about any specific kind of alien at all. If they don't show the alien then the whole movie is about nothing, then there's nothing to see.
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.:::GENERATIONS PASS:::.
.:::CIVILISATIONS DIE:::.
.:::THE BLiNK OF AN EYE:::.
.:::IN GALACTIC TIME:::.
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25-07-2011 23:21 |
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doolhoofd
discobol
Registration Date: 02-03-2011
Posts: 324
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Maybe I should fit that into the text somehow...
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.:::GENERATIONS PASS:::.
.:::CIVILISATIONS DIE:::.
.:::THE BLiNK OF AN EYE:::.
.:::IN GALACTIC TIME:::.
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25-07-2011 23:24 |
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doolhoofd
discobol
Registration Date: 02-03-2011
Posts: 324
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I mean, why make a movie about alien contact if you're not gonna show the alien? Why all the buildup, the romance, the sentimentality, the special effects? That space-travelling machine has never been built btw, it's just a movie, nothing even remotely like that has ever happened in real life. The whole film is just a big spectacle, extremely well-made but nothing more.
I'm gonna try to shut up now.
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.:::GENERATIONS PASS:::.
.:::CIVILISATIONS DIE:::.
.:::THE BLiNK OF AN EYE:::.
.:::IN GALACTIC TIME:::.
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25-07-2011 23:39 |
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