Orpheus uses the New Novel + the Labyrinth as an argument for understanding two incredible films that typically evade direct Interpretation — which he eschews the act of Interpreting anyways, and recommends Analysis (focusing on meaningful patterns rather than a direct 1:1 meaning).
Angel’s Egg for example collects moments of ineffable, lonely details that do not move the story forward, and yet these are the primary substance of the film. Just pure artistry — absorbing beauty rather than questioning truth.
As far as the “new novel” goes, the argument is that we must abandon character — or at least old notions of characters. Another trait of the new novel is an incoherent universe, refusing a coherent aesthetic. Finally, things may resemble symbols, but not everything is what meets the eye.
Angel’s Egg has a moment where fisherman are trying to harpoon fish but there are only shadows. Someone is too curious about the egg that he shatters it. And then more eggs appear. The lesson: when we try to obtain meaning, we destroy what is sublime — and multiplies our confusion.
Now turn to Stalker, by Tarkovsky.
There is a room where your desires can be granted within a zone, guided by the Stalker. Written in an era of psychoanalytic novels, enclosed constantly within a system of meaning. The stalker, like the designer of the New Novel, wants to go into a zone of new meanings.
When they approach the zone, it emits an alien noise. They ask, what is that? They do not ask what it “means.” This is a world more interested in presence — “where objects and gestures establish themselves.”
“Let presence continue to prevail over whatever explanatory theory that may try to enclose them in a system of references…”
Sound as this “meaningless” art — music as being without Idealisms, and yet it can penetrate the soul. Something can be artistically beautiful before meaning is perceived. If music can do this, why cannot film?
The room itself doesn’t grant your wish (conscious desire), but rather it reads your soul and grants what is most complimentary to your true nature.
Yet like the New Novel, the characters decide to not go into the room. Perhaps out of fear of being totally perceived, but also as a rejection of attempting to analyze and discern Truth.
Orpheus argues these films are more like Labyrinth, which is aligned with the argument for a New Novel — not trying to solve the meaning of the artwork but moving through the experience and resisting the urge to capture the meaning. Confusion and Ambiguity may show up, as it is the nature of us to try to grasp at meaning.
Rain arrives in both films at this moment where Absolute Truth is revealed to be a sham. Rain is interesting as its a weather pattern that is beautiful to just experience it. It’s not clear why, it simply is.
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