There are days when you want to draw the curtains, cover the lampshades and find yourself alone nestled in the reassuring darkness of a house.
It is this intimate space, that of mid-darkness, that Catherine Martin summons in her latest film, Praise of the shadow. The title comes from an essay of the same name by the Japanese writer Jun’ichiro Tanizaki. Published in 1933, this essay advocated Japanese aesthetics, which favors penumbra as opposed to the omnipresent luminosity in Western aesthetics.
Following Japanese artisans in the making of candles, lacquer or paper that filters the sun through windows, the filmmaker invites us to discover the shapes and reflections generated by a flame or by rays of light through the paper. Thus, we perceive “the color of darkness through a flame”, indicates Tanizaki. In Japan, we learn, cuisine is not something to be eaten, but something to be looked at. So we make the shine of the black lacquer of the dishes shine with the shimmer of the candle flame.
Meditative and poetic film, Praise of the Shadow also goes back to the origins of photography. It features light-catching boxes made by William Henry Fox Talbot, a British scientist considered one of the pioneers of photography. The light from a window, engraved by him through exposure on the film, fascinates the director.
Blind light
Facing darkness head on, the film also delves into the eyes of several blind people, who testify on screen. One does not live in total darkness, but rather says she has “billions of little lights in her eyes, which are there constantly, day, evening and night.”
To evoke light and its inseparable associate, shadow, one must, for another, delve very deep into one’s memories. Thus, she can find, far in her childhood memories, the very clear sensation of perceiving the shadow of her own body on the ground. “For me, shadow is inseparable from light,” she says. A memorable experience. “To keep memories of images that we no longer see, you have to think about them a lot. But it’s something that has imprinted itself on me, the importance of light. » Despite her blindness, she says she needs to light lamps in the house where she lives. “I always live in a bright space […] I like being in large spaces lit by windows, by light. » “I see nothing from the outside, but my universe is inhabited by light. I need it to feel comfortable, to feel comfortable in life. »
“Sometimes I wonder what the shadow is,” says another blind person met in the film. When I think about this, I think of the sun. I know it’s light, because I’ve been told so. And it’s heat. And the shadow, I know that it is less light, because I have been told so. And it’s cooler. It’s more relaxing. It’s like between day and night. Daytime is supposed to be light and nighttime is supposed to be rest. But for me, in my perceptions, I do not distinguish day from night, because I have never had any light perception. »
Catherine Martin, who studied cinema and photography, has always worked with light and shadow. “There is no freedom without knowing the shadow,” she said. At the end of the meditation she offers us, she concludes by suggesting that we turn off our light screens for a moment, to finally enjoy the darkness.