Morgan on Devotional Cinema

  Essentially, this book establishes everything in cinema that I love. It speaks of truth and clarity and the fluidity of the motion picture. I feel like this is THE filmmaker's and film lovers bible. Given that, you can already tell how this book will inspire my approach as a filmmaker. Now, with every single creative decision I will think, " Am I being true to virtues of cinema, and since cinema affects my metabolism (as a viewer), am I being true to myself? Is this scene (or interview) expressing the nowness of this particular moment, or is it undercutting it? I think they're may be moments where I might fall from grace, and in those moments, I'll go back to the book and realize the correct approach to my creative decision.
    Also, Nathaniel Dorsky cites examples from specific films that express the truth that he preaches on. By citing these pictures, Dorsky points out the apostles of Purity in Cinema. Films such as the passion of joan of arc (1928) and La Notte (1961) demonstrates to filmmakers like myself the idea of balance in cinema: The balance of the subject and self and the balance of narrative and nowness. I know now that there is this balance, and it is my duty as a filmmaker to uphold this balance in every film I make. I will need to think, "Is this shot in the now? Will the viewer be as one with this scene/shot/image as I am now?" If not, I will need to reassert the principles laid out in the book to make sure that the scene/shot/image expresses quintessential nowness. 
     Now that I've opened up Pandora's Box thanks to you Shannon, I now have some serious responsibilities (not like I didn't before) as a filmmaker. Anyways, I truly believe that this book represents something of greater power in cinema. I think a strong example is when sunlight passes through leaves and makes its way through the lens and hits celluloid. At that moment in time, while the winds graces through the trees, and the light still manages to bounce itself onto the celluloid; The affinities of now imprint on film.