(From) The Lighthouse
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The rocky ledge runs far into the sea, and on its outer point, some miles away, the lighthouse lifts its massive masonry, A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.
Even at this distance I can see the tides, Upheaving, break unheard along its base, A speechless wrath, that rises and subsides in the white tip and tremor of the face.
And as the evening darkens, lo! How bright, through the deep purple of the twilight air, Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light, with strange, unearhly splendor in the glare!
... The mariner remembers when a child, on his first voyage, he saw it fade and sink And when returning from adventures wild, He saw it rise again o'er ocean's brink.
Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same, Year after year, through all the silent night Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame, Shines on that inextinguishable light!
~ The Lighthousekeeper Has Long Been Transformed, From A Purely Literary And Folklorical Figure, Into A Genuinely Cinematic Symbol Of Existential Uproar And Horror.
The Cinematic Image Of The Lighthousekeeper Is Elaborately, Intricately And Inseparably Interwoven With The Iconographic Architecture, That Is Surrounding And Sheltering Him Within The Storm Of Being:"The Lighthouse", Not Just Since Robert Eggers Excellent Film Of The Same Name, But Since The Delicate Early Dawn Of The Cinematic Art Itself. One Of The Earliest Specimens Within This Iconographic Genealogy Is Edwin S. Porters Silent Film The Lighthouse by the Sea(1911), Which Could Be Regarded As A Familial Melodrama Of Sorts. Another Example Could Be Jean Grémillons Manic Classic Gardiens de Phare(1929), In Which A Lighthousekeeper And His Son Are Isolated Within A Lighthouse Amidst A Roaring Storm. And «Os Faroleiros»(1922) By Mauricio Mariaud Is Yet Another Silent Film Within That Same Vein, Just As Frances Marions Turbulent Coastal Romance The Love Light (1921). In All Of These Silent Films, There Is A Subliminal Emphasis On Familial, Genealogical Unrest, Loss, Bereavement, Grief And Existential, Traumatic Turmoil.
Yet Simultaneously, Through The Beautiful Coastal Vistas And Through The Often Impressionistic(And In The Case Of Gardiens de Phare Even Avantgardistic) Tableaux, There Is A Pertaining Sense Of Wonder, Levity, Ineffability, Mystical Or Spiritual Revelation, Abyssal Awe And Uncanny Forboding. The Lighthouse As The Central Primordially-Kinetic Eye Of The Orcanos & Maelström Of Being. I Am Also Obliged To Point Out The Jean Epstein Shorts "Le Tempestaire"(1947) & "Les Feux de la Mer"(English Titles: "Sea Lights" & "The Sea Speaks"; 1948). "Le Tempestaire" Is A Work Of Profoundly & Ominously Enchanting Majesty And Melancholy, Evoking An Eerie, Ghostly Sense Of Haunting Tragedy And Unquenching Inevitability. "Les Feux de la Mer" On The Other Hand Is A Semi-Documentary Film About The Internal Logistical & Spiritual Realities Of Regional And Global Lighthouse-Keeping. Then There's "The Phantom Light"(1935) By The Legendary British Director Michael Powell(Peeping Tom), In Which Witty Criminals Try To Scare A New Lighthousekeeper On The Welsh Coast, In Order To Distract Him From Their Mischievous Enterprises. And Then I Wouldn't Dare To Brush Over The Classic Donald Duck Cartoon "Lighthouse Keeping"(1946) By Jack Hannah. In Regards To Younger Specimens Within This Cinematic Genealogy, I Think Of John Carpenters Uncanny Classic "The Fog"(1980), In Which Adrienne Barbeaus Radio-Station Is Broadcasting From Antonio Bays Spyvey Point Lighthouse, As The Fog Suddenly Appears On The Nightly Horizon. I Also Think Of The Ominous Finale Of Martin Scorseses "Shutter Island"(2010). Lars Von Triers Masterpiece "Breaking The Waves"(1996), Tacita Deans 16mm Short Film "Disappearance At Sea"(1996) And, Although More In A Subtextually Thematic Sense, Mariya Saakyans Mournful Elegy "Mayak"(English Title: "The Lighthouse"; 2006) Are Also In That Same Vein. John Does Short Film "Luz De Mar/Sea Light"(2022) Is Now Crystallising This Cinematic Genealogy Within A Crisp Runtime Of 15 Minutes, Just The Same Way As Eggers Formidable Work Did It Within The Feature-Film-Format. Lluís Soler Portrays Mark, An Elder Lighthousekeeper, That Is Primarily Enshrouded Within Silence, Penetrated Only By Sudden, But Brief, Bursts Of Cathartic Expression. His Accomplished Acting Conveys A Profound Sense Of Tenderness, Tranquility And Acceptance, Yet At The Same Time There Is An Ever-Present Ineffable Mourning Within His Soul. This Dichotomy Is Highlighted By Two Narrative Devices: First Of All He Is Incurably Ill (He Eventually Coughs Up Blood.) And Then There Are These Mysterious Bottled Letters, That Keep Washing Ashore. The Integral Inseparability Of Lighthouse And Lighthousekeeper Is Then Emphasized Through The Fact That The Engine Supporting The Navigational Light On Top Of The Lighthouse Is Malfunctioning, Just As Marks Bodily Health Begins To Crumble. He Then Burns The Wooden Box, In Which He Stored These Innumerable Letters Of Unknown Origin, In An Symbolic Attempt To Adhere To His Duty As A Lighthousekeeper, i.e. To Provide A Navigational Coastal Light Amidst The Dark Of Night. But First And Foremost It Should Be Read As An Unacknowledged Purification-Ritual, Through Which A Spiritual, Cathartic One-Pointedness Is Achieved. This Is Supported By The Fact That He Then Reads The Remaining Letter For A Second Time, The One He Found Ashore In The Beginning Of The Film. It Reads: "Come Back Home, Mark." He Then Climbs Up The Spiral Staircase And Gazes Upon His Dearly Beloved Ocean For The Last Time. In The Final, Breathtakingly Beautiful, Zoom Of The Film Ot Boqués Pristine Cinematography Reaches It's Peak, As Well As Miquel de Jorge Artells' Captivating Music, Which Throughout The Film Had Been Minutely Merged With The Excellent Sound Design By Felipe García. The Circularity Of The Work Is Indeed Another Major Indicator For The Fundamental Inevitability Of Our Cathartic Experience Of Being.
Theodor W. Adorno Once Wrote: "Nichts Unmittelbares führt hinaus über den schuldhaften Kreis des Natürlichen, sondern einzig bloß die Reflexion auf dessen Geschlossenheit."1(English Translation: Nothing Immediate leads Beyond The Culpable Circle of the Natural Consciousness, but only the Reflection on it's Unity.) Perhaps This Spiritual Breakthrough Is The Long-Awaited Homecoming, That Was Referenced In The Final Bottled Letter.
1=Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia. Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben, In: Theodor W. Adorno. Gesammelte Schriften, Hrsg. Von Rolf Tiedemann unter Mitwirkung von Gretel Adorno, Susan Buck-Morss und Klaus Schultz, Band IV, Frankfurt am Main 2003, S. 293.
The rocky ledge runs far into the sea, and on its outer point, some miles away, the lighthouse lifts its massive masonry, A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.
Even at this distance I can see the tides, Upheaving, break unheard along its base, A speechless wrath, that rises and subsides in the white tip and tremor of the face.
And as the evening darkens, lo! How bright, through the deep purple of the twilight air, Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light, with strange, unearhly splendor in the glare!
... The mariner remembers when a child, on his first voyage, he saw it fade and sink And when returning from adventures wild, He saw it rise again o'er ocean's brink.
Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same, Year after year, through all the silent night Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame, Shines on that inextinguishable light!
~ The Lighthousekeeper Has Long Been Transformed, From A Purely Literary And Folklorical Figure, Into A Genuinely Cinematic Symbol Of Existential Uproar And Horror.
The Cinematic Image Of The Lighthousekeeper Is Elaborately, Intricately And Inseparably Interwoven With The Iconographic Architecture, That Is Surrounding And Sheltering Him Within The Storm Of Being:"The Lighthouse", Not Just Since Robert Eggers Excellent Film Of The Same Name, But Since The Delicate Early Dawn Of The Cinematic Art Itself. One Of The Earliest Specimens Within This Iconographic Genealogy Is Edwin S. Porters Silent Film The Lighthouse by the Sea(1911), Which Could Be Regarded As A Familial Melodrama Of Sorts. Another Example Could Be Jean Grémillons Manic Classic Gardiens de Phare(1929), In Which A Lighthousekeeper And His Son Are Isolated Within A Lighthouse Amidst A Roaring Storm. And «Os Faroleiros»(1922) By Mauricio Mariaud Is Yet Another Silent Film Within That Same Vein, Just As Frances Marions Turbulent Coastal Romance The Love Light (1921). In All Of These Silent Films, There Is A Subliminal Emphasis On Familial, Genealogical Unrest, Loss, Bereavement, Grief And Existential, Traumatic Turmoil.
Yet Simultaneously, Through The Beautiful Coastal Vistas And Through The Often Impressionistic(And In The Case Of Gardiens de Phare Even Avantgardistic) Tableaux, There Is A Pertaining Sense Of Wonder, Levity, Ineffability, Mystical Or Spiritual Revelation, Abyssal Awe And Uncanny Forboding. The Lighthouse As The Central Primordially-Kinetic Eye Of The Orcanos & Maelström Of Being. I Am Also Obliged To Point Out The Jean Epstein Shorts "Le Tempestaire"(1947) & "Les Feux de la Mer"(English Titles: "Sea Lights" & "The Sea Speaks"; 1948). "Le Tempestaire" Is A Work Of Profoundly & Ominously Enchanting Majesty And Melancholy, Evoking An Eerie, Ghostly Sense Of Haunting Tragedy And Unquenching Inevitability. "Les Feux de la Mer" On The Other Hand Is A Semi-Documentary Film About The Internal Logistical & Spiritual Realities Of Regional And Global Lighthouse-Keeping. Then There's "The Phantom Light"(1935) By The Legendary British Director Michael Powell(Peeping Tom), In Which Witty Criminals Try To Scare A New Lighthousekeeper On The Welsh Coast, In Order To Distract Him From Their Mischievous Enterprises. And Then I Wouldn't Dare To Brush Over The Classic Donald Duck Cartoon "Lighthouse Keeping"(1946) By Jack Hannah. In Regards To Younger Specimens Within This Cinematic Genealogy, I Think Of John Carpenters Uncanny Classic "The Fog"(1980), In Which Adrienne Barbeaus Radio-Station Is Broadcasting From Antonio Bays Spyvey Point Lighthouse, As The Fog Suddenly Appears On The Nightly Horizon. I Also Think Of The Ominous Finale Of Martin Scorseses "Shutter Island"(2010). Lars Von Triers Masterpiece "Breaking The Waves"(1996), Tacita Deans 16mm Short Film "Disappearance At Sea"(1996) And, Although More In A Subtextually Thematic Sense, Mariya Saakyans Mournful Elegy "Mayak"(English Title: "The Lighthouse"; 2006) Are Also In That Same Vein. John Does Short Film "Luz De Mar/Sea Light"(2022) Is Now Crystallising This Cinematic Genealogy Within A Crisp Runtime Of 15 Minutes, Just The Same Way As Eggers Formidable Work Did It Within The Feature-Film-Format. Lluís Soler Portrays Mark, An Elder Lighthousekeeper, That Is Primarily Enshrouded Within Silence, Penetrated Only By Sudden, But Brief, Bursts Of Cathartic Expression. His Accomplished Acting Conveys A Profound Sense Of Tenderness, Tranquility And Acceptance, Yet At The Same Time There Is An Ever-Present Ineffable Mourning Within His Soul. This Dichotomy Is Highlighted By Two Narrative Devices: First Of All He Is Incurably Ill (He Eventually Coughs Up Blood.) And Then There Are These Mysterious Bottled Letters, That Keep Washing Ashore. The Integral Inseparability Of Lighthouse And Lighthousekeeper Is Then Emphasized Through The Fact That The Engine Supporting The Navigational Light On Top Of The Lighthouse Is Malfunctioning, Just As Marks Bodily Health Begins To Crumble. He Then Burns The Wooden Box, In Which He Stored These Innumerable Letters Of Unknown Origin, In An Symbolic Attempt To Adhere To His Duty As A Lighthousekeeper, i.e. To Provide A Navigational Coastal Light Amidst The Dark Of Night. But First And Foremost It Should Be Read As An Unacknowledged Purification-Ritual, Through Which A Spiritual, Cathartic One-Pointedness Is Achieved. This Is Supported By The Fact That He Then Reads The Remaining Letter For A Second Time, The One He Found Ashore In The Beginning Of The Film. It Reads: "Come Back Home, Mark." He Then Climbs Up The Spiral Staircase And Gazes Upon His Dearly Beloved Ocean For The Last Time. In The Final, Breathtakingly Beautiful, Zoom Of The Film Ot Boqués Pristine Cinematography Reaches It's Peak, As Well As Miquel de Jorge Artells' Captivating Music, Which Throughout The Film Had Been Minutely Merged With The Excellent Sound Design By Felipe García. The Circularity Of The Work Is Indeed Another Major Indicator For The Fundamental Inevitability Of Our Cathartic Experience Of Being.
Theodor W. Adorno Once Wrote: "Nichts Unmittelbares führt hinaus über den schuldhaften Kreis des Natürlichen, sondern einzig bloß die Reflexion auf dessen Geschlossenheit."1(English Translation: Nothing Immediate leads Beyond The Culpable Circle of the Natural Consciousness, but only the Reflection on it's Unity.) Perhaps This Spiritual Breakthrough Is The Long-Awaited Homecoming, That Was Referenced In The Final Bottled Letter.
1=Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia. Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben, In: Theodor W. Adorno. Gesammelte Schriften, Hrsg. Von Rolf Tiedemann unter Mitwirkung von Gretel Adorno, Susan Buck-Morss und Klaus Schultz, Band IV, Frankfurt am Main 2003, S. 293.