Kind Of Blue

I caught a fragment of a programme Jane was watching this afternoon, featuring an interview with Alfred Hitchcock by the English film director and actor, Bryan Forbes. At one point, Forbes posited that one of his favourite Hitchcock movies might have been better served had it been filmed in black & white for effect. Hitchcock's instant response was: '"I opted for colour because the birds were in black & white..."', going on to say that the monochrome [of the antagonists - the birds themselves] was thrown into stark contrast to the very colour of the humans and whose environment they threatened. This kind of incisive thinking makes an artist out of an artesan. Thinking beyond the surface qualities of the medium in which they are working, the artist simultaneously exploits and transcends the limitations of that chosen medium. Think Turner. Think Masaccio, Think Hockney, Think Buñuel. Think Gentileschi. Think Derek Jarman's last film, 'Blue'. All of these artists, and many many, more over the centuries, have honed in on the exact point - the punctum - of meaning in the work they are creating, to the exclusion of all fluff and fashionable frippery, and often deliberately, covertly, having a dig at the expense of their patrons. This is the mark of true artistic genius; just like Miles Davis... [image, mine own, an accidental and coincidental photograph from the other day]