next salon topic

[John Matturri]

This popped into my mind right away so I'll go with it.

Look into the abyss.

From Nietzsche somewhere, something like Look into the abyss long enough and the abyss will look into you. But that's just a way to connect the notion of the abyss to the notion of looking and photographing, so no need to pay Nietzsche any mind.

The idea came from a mention of the movie Out of the Past in a Scorsese interview. So maybe a connection with sp through film noir, especially a certain kind of cosmic film noir such as Out of the Past, Kiss Me Deadly, Vertigo, and the like. But really it brings to mind certain anxiety-ridden film of Nick Ray, especially They Live by Night. Or even more so a particular scene in In a Lonely Place in which Gloria Grahme and Bogart struggle over a phone that has just rung and if answered will throw their lives into the abyss once and for all. During that struggle the camera stands between them and as they pull in both directions just for a couple of frames the frame stands empty, opening up the abyss on screen, as they pull in opposite directions. Much more powerful to me than the more heavy handed apocolypse in the planetarian scene in Rebel without a Cause.

All that not being instructions so much as my quick thought process they can be the start of yours or ignored as seems most useful. No need to look at Nietzsche or shift around you netflix cue. All that counts is the phrase “Look into the abyss” and what you might make of it that will grab me or not. I have little idea of how I would approach this.