Saturday commute lxiii: we would, all, have said so

A thing that has unquestionably influenced my develop-

ment as a creator of films is water. I cannot conceive 

of cinema without water. .. Lying on the bottom of the 

skiff with Godefer, with the branches brushing our 

faces, I had a thrill very near to what I feel when 

watching a film which moves me deeply. I know we cannot 

go back upstream, but I am free to relive in my own fa-

shion the sensation of leaves stroking the end of my 

nose. For me that is what a good film is, the caress 

of foliage in a boat with a friend.

The "all" I have in mind were spilled out in clusters on the carpet of a college club library beneath the crackle and whir of a Pathé projector to see a bouncing box of light play images before them, that they would never forget. This was before this text was written, and they'd have said they'd known it all along, because of him.

               

              
                When you get

                to be grateful,

                you don't stop.

                The acquisition of
                gratitude is so
                different now, I
                wonder about its
                longevity, the dur-
                ability of meaning.
              
                How full is grati-
                tude now, how firm,
                how does it fare?

Jean Renoir
Ma vie et mes films
1974
Norman Denny, translation
Atheneum, 1974©


ii  Water study series, Venice
     Lionel André, April, 2012