Shaked Schwartz’s Reviews > Sculpting in Time > Status Update

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Love his description of directing as “sculpting in time,” and especially the idea that every person would sculpt a different film out of the recording of an entire person’s life.

Reread again from the chapter’s beginning to this page. Having a harder time connecting to what he’s saying in this chapter, but it also seems like he’s building up towards an incredibly profound revelation about the art of cinema, so I’m staying optimistic.

Reallyyyy love Tarkovsky’s way of describing what cinema is to him. He really knows how to pull the most deepest connection in the depths of my soul to the arts and translate it to words id never have thought exist. Just by reading his perspective on cinema I had felt emotions as evoked while watching a film physically.

Finished the chapter! The recent rise of ai had me in an ongoing existential crisis and concern for the future of cinema, and this chapter reassured me the meaning and importance of cinema, and art in generally, which was really uplifting… So I pretty much got addicted to reading and started feeling a need for it as a way to clear my mind a little each day.

Holy fuck was page 53 a harddd read. I had to reread pretty much any second line and translate any third or fourth word. But I can’t say it wasn’t a rewarding read as well, as in the end it mostly clicked for me in the beginning of page 54. Will probably reread the last couple pages when continuing reading though.

These pages were much tougher to read and comprehend- both in content and form. Makes sense to me though considering their content, which now is more about the meaning of art and what a masterpiece constitutes of, which is an incredibly complex topic that can be argued about forever.

I can’t explain it, but these last few pages had me immersed in a way I didn’t know was possible nor will be able to describe. It’s like I was floating inside the medium of cinema itself, if it had came into being as a physical ever-growing universe. I’ve seen the words written manifest in my head as some sort of avant-garde film. If this wasn’t a transcendental experience, I don’t know what is.

This chapter was much more interesting but tougher to read through due to the abundance of long sentences full of complicated words. But still, after the first chapter triggered my passion for cinema and yearning to create in it, this one had made me consider why I feel this affection for the medium. I’m extremely excited to read Tarkovsky’s extended philosophy of the art and then rewatch all of his films.