So yesterday I did something I’m really not supposed to do – but also something that I only gained the capacity back to do in the last few years. I wrote an entire script from top to bottom, some 23 pages, in five and a half hours. It needs a redraft, obviously, but it’s mostly there and only got a scant handful of notes from the client yesterday evening. Today, however, I have eyestrain and brain burn. So it’s into the final polishes on DEPT MIDNIGHT and not looking at anything else. Avail by email and phone all day to work and friends, all else is being tuned out.
I’m re-reading Schrader’s TRANSCENDENTAL STYLE IN FILM at night and it’s making me think furiously, all over again.
Tarkovsky likes to gorge the spectator’s eyes whereas Bresson prefers to starve them. But both artists felt the keys to the artist’s kingdom lie in the application of style over content. It’s the form of things that makes you free.