Latitude [An Unmade Picture]
by Mathew Weitman
The beginning of the film made more elaborate
by silence [the way a sky is made
more elaborate without clouds] & white text
on a dark screen: an absurdly long number
made longer & more absurd by its expression in words
The letters change: To solve N/S, divide E/W by the time of day
Coordinates code our time & place
another example of unseen math
[the filmmaker could’ve shown a saguaro but didn’t]
Sightlines produce imaginary figures: the horizon’s subtrahend
the empty chair dead letter offices for corresponding stars
My reading suggests the ocean too must have a meniscus
as it fills & takes the shape of its container
In an interview the director denied familiarity with Cocteau
when asked about the famous scene
in which an osprey swallows a mirror & turns into an equation:
More evidence of π, that’s all
The world shrugs off an endless sequence:
seagulls carry spiral shells
& drop them from great heights
as they cannot pry them open with their beaks
[a fact I learned only recently, from the film]
EXT. — DECIDUOUS WOODLAND — DAY
The letters change: If each tree is an algebra, solve for X.
Language codes the arithmetic of nature:
I wander through the integer forest & often lose the weather
A camera like a flower like an eye opens
& closes wants or denies a location’s light
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