That duality – arty experimentation combined with classic reverence – is precisely what makes McQueen’s style unique, and helps to unravel another of his enigmatic comments: “At the end of the day, all you can do in cinema is subvert the form, which is limiting. But it’s a beautiful form.” When he’s asked to expand, his already quick speech turns rapid-fire: “If you see the same sort of trajectory, the same sort of narrative, it gets extraordinarily boring. That’s what’s going on in most movies. So to subvert, disrupt, challenge, stimulate is necessary, or it grows tiresome and people won’t go any more.”
“But, still, it’s a beautiful form, isn’t it? You go to a cinema, you’re sitting with an audience, you’re anticipating and watching together, the curtain slides open, the projector is turned on, you’re into a world. It’s the most beautiful form anywhere, I think. But … .”
But what? It’s the stammer again, putting a stop to his lovely effusion. There’s suspense in the silence, and in his eager struggle to break it. But what? The struggle ends, the dam bursts and the five short words that pour forth say everything about Steve McQueen, and about the raw eloquence of the films he makes: “… But it has to be urgent.”
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(Source: 2shakes, via fuckyeahdirectors)
