Jean-Baptiste-Simémon Chardin, The House of Cards, 1737
I remember in class, a picture of a boy building a house of cards. The surface content seems familiar, serene, perhaps even calming but with the passing of time the child's house of cards will inevitably fall. This idea of loss and destruction with the soft image of the child collide, exemplifying the loss of innocence.
There are many other pictures of this idea within the Rococo period of painting. What I find interesting though is that we might have not lost anything in the first place. Innocence replaced by experience. Unknowing filled by understanding. But then you could say that innocence and unknowing is better. But is it?
This proves a very trying question. What do you want out of life? I would pick truth. I have no reason why it appeals to me. Maybe because Cypher says mentions this in the Matrix (1999): "Ignorance is bliss". But I want to dive deep in life, more than living in ignorance, with a strong urge to learn and understand the universe. This maybe Romantic, but that's what I think.
A movie that I saw recently at the RiverRun International Film Festival was Treeless Mountain (2008). Two young girls find themselves living with their drunk and ungrateful aunt, abandoned by their mother who disappears to find her husband. In this visually appealing film, the girls encounter many eye opening and innocence shedding experiences. Losing their mother, striving to become rich, the need for family, the need for food, the effects of alcohol, and the bitterness found in city life.
The South Eastern aesthetic presents itself in a new fashion in this feature by So Yong Kim. Although the compositions are flattened by long lenses, the natural lighting hails from European and American movies such as the French New Wave film, 400 Blows. South Eastern films generally feature the color black especially by crushing the shadows of the images, but this film's tonal range of color and shade go far beyond any South Eastern film I've seen. It seems like So Young Kim is absorbing the realism of the child actors rather than capturing it.
Treeless Mountain is truly a masterpiece and has captured the hearts of millions including mine.
