Hugh on Devotional Cinema

         After reading Devotional Cinema I realize the importance and power, more so now,  that film has; especially film that is true to its own nature. This short book illuminates the possibilities of film by presenting the most important factors one must be aware of. Dorsky explains how devotion, in regards to film, can bring about an entirely different more fulfilling experience. Dorsky explains the two basic types of time present in film, being relative time and nowness. He also says that shots and cuts, when complimenting each other, can open up wondrous moments of exploration. He says you cannot have one without the other, and that they are cinema's primal handmaidens. I really enjoyed this section of the book especially, because it presented the same information I've been taught over and over in the simplest most informative way possible. I found this quote by Dorsky to sum up the main idea of shots and cuts, "The shots, as moments of luminous accommodation, ripen and expand and are popped like soap bubbles by the cut. The cuts re-declare the clarity of the shots, restating the primal clarity of the view."
          While I find Nathaniel Dorskys viewpoints beautifully articulated and profoundly interesting, I don't agree with everything he says and stands for, because I think he tends to bring to much of the ethereal, inner soul type attitude to what is ultimately a personal conquest. But I do think that films that are more enjoyable and more spiritually gratifying, are ones where the filmmaker has allowed their true nature to mix in with a personal connection to an unbiased ideal. I think this book will help me in my film career because I have more of an awareness to vision, and the power of film now. I feel as if now I can approach a film with a clearer sense of connection, and appreciation.