7: Observing

One thing that plays a significant role in the film is contemplating, observing. What exactly do you mean by that?

I can see this banana lying in the fruit bowl, but I do not see the banana, but what I know about it. Maybe we can learn to look without predisposition, to look at things around us, at ourselves, at our inner world without using our imagination.

I wish that I could look so openly. Contemplating, observing is looking without attaching any significance to anything. But as always there are images, there is an I, there is approval and disapproval. I want one thing and I don't want something else, to have my cake and eat it, labels, fears and desires. This contemplating stuff is what I'm trying to train the viewer at. Just take a look at a vase, for once. And try to 'see' it. Then an enormous space emerges. It is like being open to silence.

Is that not a long training?

Yes, it can't be done just in one film, but I don't think I have done a bad job. When they quarrel at the end, we all sit and observe. We never get to see Marga, his girlfriend, at all; in the meantime, we are looking at a table leg.

That is maybe why it is such a lovely quarrel in which you don't take sides.

I hope so. It is impossible to take sides. They are both right.

Normally you would have seen both and then you would have made your choice much earlier, been sympathetic towards one of the two.

So less identification with one of the two.

You talk about observing while there are also many symbols. The sheet must mean something?

Yes and no. The sheet is of course an empty sheet, nothing, the silver screen on which images can be projected. Stretch of sand, mirror, the lamp in the projector; they are all the same symbols of the unspeakable. Because the sheet is there, we can project images. Because the lamp is there inside the projector, we can see images; the emptiness and silence in my head makes it possible for thoughts and images to come about. Something like that. And everything disappears again. And nothing matters. Whether I explain this clearly or not. Whether you understand it or not, it doesn't matter. They are all images on the screen, even now.

Okay, I don't think I actually understand it at all, I believe. I… believe.
Music plays a major role?

Yes, Kancheli, beautiful music. I just happened to chance upon this Georgian. And there's quite a lot of his music available on CD. Very inspiring music. I wrote him a letter straight from the heart asking if I was allowed to use his music. And he agreed.

Music can, of course, evoke emotions very rapidly, just like images. It touches the viewer in his heart, not in his head. It immediately appeals to the emotions. Words are so feeble, so often they cause misunderstandings. But we have a high regard for words. Take for example your first question: 'what is your film about?' So this interview about my film is really nonsense.

And this website too?

Yes. Nonsense! It is nonsense to read all this. There is nothing to say. Forget everything!

Source: http://www.dezeediedenkt.nl/htm/english/theseathatthinks.htm