| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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The Decalogue treats the issue of “death” with much more seriousness than most; has more real reel women than most; has interesting, if implicit, observations about bureaucracy and social class; perhaps has a greater concern for religious values than even its obvious social values; is one of the rare films to work evenly at the aesthetic, ethical, and religious levels. “Running the questions” means quickly skipping over some to alight on those that seem to have the most promise for pursuit.
This is truly a textbook; it can even be read section by section; but the greater joys are in completing the book as soon as possible, and then practicing a “run of the questions” week by week, film by film: a book “giving instruction in the principles of a subject of (film) study.”
This textbook is also premised on specific understandings of creativity, on a scholarship of integration, and on an untraditional view on objectivity.
From my own first year of college I have a strong recollection of H.W. Janson’s discussion of creativity in his History of Art. His example was a bull by Picasso…a bull made simply from bicycle handle bars turned up, as if horns, and the bicycle seat turned down, as if the head of the bull. Creativity includes seeing something in a new way. I am of the thought that this “social science” perspective on truth and values adds a dimension to the conversation that is film study.
I have also seen my effort as being what Ernest Boyer describes as a “scholarship of integration.” Boyer says, “In proposing the scholarship of integration, we underscore the need for scholars who give meaning to isolated facts, putting them in perspective. By integration, we mean making connections across the disciplines, placing the specialties in larger context, illuminating data in a revealing way, often educating non-specialists, too…what we mean is serious, disciplined work that seeks to interpret, draw together, and bring new insight to bear…it is through ‘connectedness’ that research is made authentic. (Boyer, 1990:18–19)”