The cinema of certain filmmakers has been more closely compared to poetry than narrative storytelling – often leaving gaps in time and space to give us, as viewers, the job of bringing our own interpretation, emotion, and personal history to complete the experience. This is certainly the case with experimental filmmakers like Jonas Mekas and Hollis Frampton (and so many others), but also narrative filmmakers. Some of my personal favorite poets of cinema are the late, great Abbas Kiarostami (who also wrote poetry), Claire Denis, and Andrei Tarkovsky.
I could also write about the dozens of films where poetry (or poets) dominate the screen. One of those films is captured below, but in a context you might not be expecting. It is fitting that this film is also from Jim Jarmusch, the director who created one of my favorite films of all time. Dead Man is the existential western about William Blake (one of my favorite poets), but here, an accountant from Cleveland, Ohio.
But, those are for another blog post. This post is dedicated to poetry inspired by cinema.
Light passes through the
celluloid, the glass, the air,
memories are forged.
I have two very good friends who are poets and the most ardent cinephiles in my circle. One, Max, is a published poet who has been writing as long as he has been seeing films as a kid in NYC. I first really connected with Max with after a screening of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai in Michigan at the Vickers Theatre in 1997.
The other came to poetry just this year. Terry is one of Bloomington’s most dedicated moviegoers – if you don’t know him, he is at most IU Cinema screenings with his black Cinema baseball cap, accompanied by (wife) Cheryl, Sarah, and Bill. His poetry is inspired by film, then fueled by countless hours on his motorcycle, giving headspace for his celluloid dreams to swirl into little cocktails of movie memories. Like the poets of cinema, these short poems give you room to bring your own interpretation, emotion, and personal history to complete the picture.
I hope you enjoy. If these resonate, there will be more!
Paterson (2016, Jim Jarmusch)
Principle Cast: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani
PATERSON
If Words
In the Mind
Are electrical impulses
And Words
In the Air
Are molecular vibrations
And Words
On the Page
Are ink on acid-free paper
How can you equate
Poetry with Permanence?
The dog ate my homework
Anyway It was barely there to start with
If you’re untalented
Garbage in, dogshit out
If you’re unlucky
Poetry in, dogshit out
But everybody knows
You gotta scrape the shit
Right off your shoes
Then again
In this
Mostly Imperfect
Of all possible worlds
How many people will even see Jarmusch’s movie
Those that matter?
Or those that don’t?
The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015, Matt Brown)
Principle Cast: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Raghuvir Joshi, Stephen Fry, Toby Jones
INSPIRATION IN THE DARK
Ramanujan
Like a strobe light flash
Could find the Truth
But not the Path
I can’t see either
The Muse mumbles
My body tumbles
Awakened by the Night Terrors
She asks
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t turn my mind off”
“Go back to sleep”
“Count sheep”
I would but
I’m afraid I might lose count
And have to start over
And over
And over
Or run out of numbers
I wonder if that’s what happened to Ramanujan?
His number wasn’t up
He simply ran out
Disappeared like the Ouroboros
With a pop!
What’s the radius of a circle
With no circumference?
I can’t believe I ate
The whole pi
And never found the center
It Comes at Night (2017, Trey Edwards Shults)
Principle Cast: Joel Edgerton, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbot, Riley Keough
IT COMES AT NIGHT
Risk averse
Cling to life
Seatbelt
Carseat
Airbag
Hand sanitizer
SPF50
Gluten free
EpiPen
Put a bicycle helmet on that kid!
What won’t you burn
To keep the Darkness at bay?
Some Strangers?
Your Family?
Your Soul?
Struggling to escape
The rot outside
You fuel the rot inside
Don’t you see?
It’s futile!
Too Late!!
Mojave (2015, William Monahan)
Principle Cast: Oscar Issac, Garrett Hedlund
MOJAVE
Gone to the Desert
To search for God
Guess he isn’t home
But even an agnostic
Can feel
The Devil’s hot breathe
On the back of his neck
Crazy to run
When all your Demons
Are internal
Better to bring a gun
And when you’ve used
Every bullet but one
Save it for yourself
Personal Shopper (2016, Olivier Assayas)
Principle Cast: Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz
THOUGHTS ON PERSONAL SHOPPER
Lingering Death
Twined Sex
Hermaphrodite Whole
Shorn of my Maleness
Hollowed out
Half my Traitor Heart stilled
Am I even Here
Or am I There
Soul riven in Twain
Grasping my Phantom Appendage
And coming up empty handed
Baby Driver (2017, Edgar Wright)
Principle Cast: Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx
BABY DRIVER
I’m It
Time It
Glide It
Slide It
Slip It
Blip It
Spin It
Pin It
Wrong Cast
Too Fast
To Die
No Flow
Too Slow
To Live
Stuck
In the Crack
Of Doom
Screw That!
REMIX
Just Drive
Over the Edge
Around the Bend
When the Music’s over
This is the End
Personal Shopper was screened at the IU Cinema in the spring of 2017 as part of the International Arthouse Film Series.
The Man Who Knew Infinity was also screened in the spring of 2017 with sponsorship by IU’s Department of Mathematics, the Dhar India Studies Program, and the IU Cinema.
Claire Denis visited IU Cinema in 2012, and Abbas Kiarostami in 2014. Both Le Samourai and Dead Man will be screened in the fall 2017 program.
Terry Sloan Career dilettante; Consummate dabbler; Half-assed problem solver, It’s not about the answers—It’s all about the questions; Student of physics; Ex-motorcycle racer; Ex-aircraft builder; Ex-acrobatic pilot; RC sailplane test pilot; Motorcycle wanderer; Wrestling with Cosmology; Future Martian, SpaceX willing; Cheryl’s partner in crime; Wake up every morning trying to figure out how I feel about not being able to understand what I see. Still believe movies can shine a light on the end of the tunnel.
Jon Vickers is the Founding Director of IU Cinema. He has been “building community” through film experiences since the early 1990’s, having opened and built programs for three thriving art cinemas in the Midwest. Favorite film: Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995).