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Well, it’s not exactly on thread, but I’m up to discussing: Using film as a medium for sigils, or spells is fascinating. Studying the films of Kenneth Anger or Alejandro Jodorowsky or magickal documentaries such as Deren’s Divine Horsemen or the even the cult Witchcraft through the Ages to understand the creative process of such spellcasting is well worth looking at. Having a filmmakers perspective would be amazing…
I am also interested in looking at films through a magickal lens as an observer. Whether the filmmaker had intended it or not, some films take on a magickal slant to someone who has been initiated, or has studied such things, and the film can take on secondary meanings… Maybe it’s just the observer imprinting his/her worldview on the film. Maybe the filmmaker has purposely embedded meanings and messages to impress upon an unsuspecting audience.
Take the movie Hard Candy with Ellen Page: On the surface one could look at the film as a simple yet edgy revenge film, but if you look deeper, other meanings emerge, both magickal and psychological. The film as a whole looks like it would be great for the stage and because of that really becomes personal for the observer.
The gist of the story is that fourteen year old Page seduces a man on an online chatroom by being herself, a fourteen year old “lolita”, and arranges to meet with him.
I really don’t want to give too much away, but she proceeds to drug him, and torture him, until she extracts a confession. It is a battle of wills and readers of The Invisibles may draw parallels of the psychic battle between King Mob and Sir Miles.
The striking difference is that Page plays an elemental force of vengeance. She cannot be reasoned with, she cannot be fooled: She is like an embodiment of the Norns or Fates. She does experience one moment of weakness and almost seems to doubt, but never really loses her resolve. Page’s character does not need motive: she is above that, she has a job to do and she does it without compunction. She plays the Devil as Redeemer, and puts her male adversary through hell in an attempt to save his soul, which ultimately she does. Again, the ending reminds me of Sir Miles.
Now the original purpose of this thread was to discuss whether these “Magickal Meanings” were placed in the film intentionally or not, or is it our own minds adding meaning where there is none. Are there filmmakers secretly trying to subvert people who are uninitiated? Are messages being passed between creative artists and others who are “in the know”?
It’s like smoking a joint and listening to certain music: it speaks to you on a different level. Perhaps as a filmmaker, Rev., you can shed light into whether this is a conscious undertaking or not. Is it the artist or observer? Obviously some films are spells, outright, but some are (or seem to be) magickal parables. |
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