Raul Ruiz

What could a Moor and a Christian living in the seventeenth century possibly have to write to each other about? The answer to that question is found in The Book of Disappearances & The Book of the Tractations--an extravagant and playful book-object based on a correspondance that miraculously survived fire and destruction via rodent. These letters are the living testimonial to secret deals and passionate debate between the two communities. By following the thread of vowels and consonants printed in bold type and strung and hidden throughout the main text, readers can retrace the story of a captive girl from Marrakech whose story echoes that of the prostitute who incarned Spain in Velasquez's scandal-stirring painting, “The Allegory of the Expulsion of the Moors.” This delicate, wonderous and precious book is a real adventure for the reader who attempts to differentiate between the puzzle's daring fiction and reality.… (more)

But if cinema is the art of mixing up and combining discontinuous lengths of image, how can we rebel against industrial standards without producing monsters?

So Central Conflict Theory is bad for cinema, or for boring film, but not boredom on film, which remains integral. Ozu both with and against Schopenhauer. So how to explain this cult of Ruiz? These poetics are convoluted, almost a gathering of whispers, a ridiculously rich vein of erudition which defiantly avoids film for two-thirds of the text.

I viewed 2046 earlier this evening and periodically lifted my jaw from the floor, such departures afforded a chance to consider Ruiz's asides, his hypothetical screenplays which jar our sense-making and toss our throwness into relief. That may refer more to Heidegger than Truffaut but that shouldn't detract nor discourage.… (more)