Advertisers want to give us answers, all of our confusion beaten into sell-able pulp.
Movie trailers are the same.
All of it so simple and pornographically direct. The failure is in their intent, attempting to answer everything, give our lives a clear, cohesive narrative, when it is just the opposite.
Real questions don’t do well under the spotlight; they wilt and are never clear. Sudden and enigmatic, they only offer a glimpse, making us stop and think, “Wait. What was that?”
5. Being ThereĀ (1979, Hal Ashby) Chance watches cartoons in a limousine.4. The Thin Red LineĀ (1998, Terrence Malick): American soldiers walk by a local in Guadalcanal.
3. Punch Drunk Love (2002, Paul Thomas Anderson): A car crashes in an empty street.2. The Graduate (1967, Mike Nichols): True love is realized…and then what?1. Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972, Werner Herzog): In the end, only monkeys are left for the revolution.
Who is with me?