终于收到了Nathaniel Dorsky的Devotional Cinema。自从太平洋电影收藏馆/伯克利艺术博物馆的Susan Oxtoby为我写毕业论文推荐了这本书，我就一直想买一本。Nathaniel Dorsky是一个住在旧金山的电影人，曾在伯克利大学，旧金山艺术学院和斯坦福大学任教。他的电影以极具影像感的画面闻名，而他个人是出名的电影纯净主义者。他对电影的放映，尤其是他自己片子的放映条件要求极为严格，特定的灯泡，特定的放映机，以他决定的放映速度...放映速度对于叙述题材的电影当然是好把握的，通常都是24格，如果速度出错也很容易发觉，但对于许多纯画面的实验电影，一般电影放映师都不具备足够的耐心和足够好的态度把握放映速度，尤其在放有些电影时，放映速度是变化的，不同的部分以不同的速度放映。这种做法在叙述片中很少见，但放映速度是很多实验电影人的玩具之一。
这本书的内容原本是Nathaniel Dorsky在普林斯顿大学举办的“宗教与电影”的一次会议上的演讲。虽然只有短短的34页，但很难总结归纳这本书的内容。书是他多年思考宗教与电影的关系后写下的。短，却都是精化。Chris说看Nathaniel Dorsky在放映后和观众对话非常搞笑，观众提个老长的问题，他的回答都没多过三个词儿。想必纯净主义者的Nathaniel Dorsky也不会是喜欢长篇大论的人。内容根教会教堂圣经都没什么关系，大概用他的话解释宗教与电影的关系来形容书的内容最为准确：电影本身就是一种宗教精神和宗教体验。
我在写论文的时候将此书读过一遍，其中的灵感和洞察力是超乎形容的。相信未来还会读很多遍，争取将那些启蒙的明亮时刻记录下来。但是现在就先让我享受一下消费主义里拥有的快感吧。
最后特别感谢B同学给我买了这本珍贵的小书。（书已经是第二版了，很高兴这样的书没有走在绝版的路上）
Devotional Cinema, a book by Nathaniel Dorsky just arrived. Ever since Susan Oxtoby from Pacific Film Archive/Berkeley Art Museum suggested the book to me when I was working on my thesis, it's been on top of my wishlist.
Nathaniel Dorsky is a San Francisco based filmmaker. His films are famous for the extremely filmmic imagery and he is famous for being the purest among film puritans. His films must be screened in his way, which means the most strict way a film is supposed to be screened. The right projector, bulb, speed...aka the perfect screening condition that varies with every film, because film is God.
Devotional Cinema was originally a talk at Princeton University as part of a conference on Religion and Cinema. It has nothing to do with church stuff, it is about...well, it'd be impossible and unfair to summarize a highly condensed book like Devotional Cinema. As short as it is only 34 not-so-heavy pages, its themes and ideas were developed over a period of years when he was lecturing at UC Berkeley , the San Francisco Art Institute, and Stanford Univ. The best description of the book could be drawn from Dorsky's explanation of the relationship between religion and cinema: film itself is the spirit or experience of religion.
I read the book once when preparing for my thesis. The inspiration and insight gained from Dorsky's writing were beyond my verbal ability. As I am reading it for a second time, I'll try to document those glowing moment of enlightment. Right this moment I am going to just enjoy the very customeristic delight of ownership.
Special thanks to B boy for buying me this precious little book.
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