The source is at the center of things -- at the origin of a motion, which is both endless and inexplicable by the action of an external force; we are obliged to assume that there is a motive-power which is both infinite and internal, which we call the soul.
The Cinema of Jacques Tati takes a highly philosophical position on compositional space / time — challenging its ontology; asking, What does it mean to be a fixed-performance? It is to be "rendered stable or permanent." How does this differ from the Theater, which is unstable, and disappears forever the moment it shows itself? Staging, for Tati, although still serving as a vital element in the narrative, is not the source of it — becoming iconographic; characters like cartoon-stickers; everything in a context, actively in composition: There are no close-ups. Each shot is an attempt at capturing an exceptional and singular moment, instigated into the physical space, that's guided by a minimalistically designed plot. As a boy and his uncle fumble through the suburbs of Paris, the crowds spiral, and move like galaxies and planets. Sounds are isolated, types of movements cataloged, games turn by depth of field, in visceral environments, on the edge of harmony. The playful depiction of the vanity of the Industrial-Technological Democratic domestic life-style is used to reflect a rhythm invisible, primary, and poetical; seemingly, of the Universe and micro-cosmos, of the immensity of the atom.
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