This is an interesting story and abstract discussion about the nature of films (or any other type of art for that matter) and their meaning. I think I've come across the Kruzmaka character before, but I wasn't sure. I enjoyed the scene set up in the studio and how the combative Krumaka tries to dismantle the director's arguments.
'As I said, I don't want to influence the viewers view on what the main message shall be. That's the beauty of interpretation, is it not? Look, ...'
And he sets off to explain that beauty, but is interrupted by Kruzmaka again.
"Well, then I take the authority and tell that this movie has no meaning at all."
I like the dry humour and the contrast between the two characters. The story has depth and complexity without being too obscure. One side argues that meaning and intention are subjective while the other seems to think it's all just gobbledygook 😆
Strong, short and to the point.
Thank you for coming and reading. Happy that you enjoyed it.
Yes! :)
Kruzmaka doesn't care about what "every one else" might say about the film but what Rudger wants its main message to be. Since he is the producer and director alike; what makes him an artist. Kruzmaka wants to tickle it out by provocation (he is well intended).
As a storyteller I have something in mind, the famous "moral of a story" and I want my audience to catch it and to have it understood in the way I understand it. If I am unclear about it, I may run into the difficulty of trying to please everyone. But if I try to please everyone, I weaken what I myself want to emphasise.
An author takes authority over his work. What makes him the chief of meaning giving. If I were a teacher and would have my students make an interpretation of my given story, I would not rate them equally but unequally, since the student who came closest to the main message would score higher than the one who missed it completely. I'd be a bad teacher if I was to rate them all equally, since that would mean that I am not very interested in teaching students to refine their skills. Of course, there is a wide spectrum, on which one outer end there is "you missed it" and on its other outer end "you got it". But a lot of middle ground.
Which makes the statement that everyone experiences a story also subjectively an obvious matter of fact. Nothing to fancy about (what our chick excitedly expresses as "freedom" - LoL).
Kruzmaka wanted the audience to experience an "aha"-moment ;)
Good points. I had the pleasure of being in an environment surrounded by artists of many skills, interests, and abilities. They all had unique perspectives about their work that was often informed by the technology that they used such as video, audio, computers, sensors, wearable tech, tangible tech, and so on. They were all committed to their art and were incredible to work with. I never had a real clear sense about why they did what they did. They would come up with sublime creations and sometimes I felt the artist had a clear goal and message, but most of the time, I could see that they were just experimenting with new tech and techniques. Exploring the boundaries of the technological medium and the relationship between artist and audience (in participatory design for example). So, their art work wasn't so much about intention and meaning but exploration and discovery. One general zeitgeist that was accepted was that the old roles between an artist and audience were blurring. It wasn't about a single genius artist coming down from the mountains with a masterpiece to wow the masses. Thanks to digital technology, the audience could become the artist or the art itself for that matter. There was no need for a message because the medium was the message. There were certainly a few artists who were more traditional in their approach, but in general, it was accepted that in the world of high tech art at least, we were not in Kansas anymore.
If that is the point, there is no need to have a podcast/show where it's talked about a film, since the film IS the message. My man is often joking about the fact that if you have the medium itself, why talk about it?
Same with authors. If you have a book why explaining its contents since if one is interested, he may read the book. LoL
Since we have both writers and other artists, and since we have book reviewers and movie critics, it's what people do, they express what they think of a piece of art. People are both interested in being given a message and give one themselves. The "critical drinker", for example, is a huge youtube-channel I regularly watch.
You've got the huge middle ground and the freedom of interpreting as the viewer, and you've got the freedom on the artists side to have a main message be absent. Same counts for having a main message in mind.
It's alright both ways. If I have a clear intent, I may say so. If I haven't one, I may leave it. But where ever I place myself into the open, I can reckon with being questioned. And, why not?
I like to be wowed by a piece of art ;) The artist, who achieved to wow me can do nothing about it when I did not get his personal message and he cannot demand that I ought to get it. He can wish for it.
If I see a great movie whom others see as well, and if we have a common sense of its message, it might be impossible to nail it down but that doesn't diminish the possibility that it's the main aspects of greatness towards what we applaud.
'The medium is the message' is a famous quote by Canadian media thinker Marshall Mcluhan. Interesting guy. Look up the quote to get a better sense of what he meant by that. Film is an old medium for art, so your points make sense in that context, but there are new technologies for art in which your points are no longer valid. As I mentioned, it's difficult to penetrarte the mind of any artist, but working with them challenged my own assumptions about the meaning of art in general.
Cann you tell me in your words?
How would you know?
Which are? You talking about AI?
Do you talk to me as an artist (like a story teller)? Or do you talk to me from a non artist perspective?
I distinguish between to penetrate the mind of an artist and his work. I may never be able to talk to the artist myself, only to see his art. Being it the former, and I would be interested, I would ask him what was on his mind when he produced his art. Being it the later, I may talk about his art, or not.
What were your assumptions? "Art in general", what do you mean by that?
Art is produced in many ways and through many mediums. There is always art which is considered to be classic and always art which is being seen as new. There is no one superior or inferior, how I see it.
Art is not just creating something expressive but added to that to be able to understand the rules of composition, perspective, proportion, as well as skillful use of the tools.
Me: Look up the quote to get a better sense of what he meant by that
You: Can you tell me in your words?
Copilot:
People are mediums themselves. If they are not aware that they are, they are like fish in the water, which are not aware of the water. So, it depends on the question "is one aware of the water"?
One may say that it is impossible to find out in asking this question directly since the person being asked might not understand what you mean.
Art is one form of expressing what modern people perceive as being projected onto them through the power of high speed connection and algorithms. Movies and stories are one form of making that the subject of the plot: humans as mere projection and reflection surfaces of what message the Internet highway represents. Since it itself is the message, meaning that it's irrelevant what you and I think ourselves.
This begs the question, for example, of whether the medium serves us or whether we are the medium's servants. I think this is decided at the moment when two fish enter into a dialogue, including the goal that both part in order to have understood each other well. If you are only connected to each other to satisfy the "need" of the "water to learn", you might as well leave any dialogue and swim past each other. For any dialogue is pointless, and the water having been taught now becomes the great teacher?
I very much miss that you didn't give me your own wording.