House Pets

"Intuition is everything", Blake commented. And this Intuition reveals itself in both the filming and the post-production process. It is present in the actual filming itself: "Look", he leveled, "I work with no script, I come with a bare bones idea, so even when working with performers who become like puppets for me, they must bring the energy with them, bring something to the party, so that I can wind them up and they can play in my context. They have to need it, want it, just as much as I do, in order for the scenes to be effective. So, intuitively, I feed off of them, and this opening up my approach and becoming more important to me." He took a long drag on his cigarette. "You know, it's important that I'm working with a girl that turns me on, but it's equally important," he continued, "that they are complicit in their own objectification for my lens, so I'm homing in on talent that I am comfortable with and that are as krazy as I am.", he winked. He paid tribute to his "naked assistant", recent disocvery and performance artist, Elena Rivera, who connects with him on an intellectual level bu on "visceral levels".

Yet, even after the filming is done and he settles in behind the editing machine, Intuition still plays a strong role in the process. "I don't actually think about it," he admitted, as the edtiting process is all about Telecine Masters and Sequence 1. As have other directors before him, Blake stressed the importance of the editing process for the finished work, and described the process as "consciously unconsciously creating." He lazily allows the images to seep into his subliminal self and conjoins free associations that are almost surrealistic in their effect.

All of this reflects how his filmmaking approach has become more introspective. He acknowledges that his work has become deliberately autobiographical, and admits that his own personal sexuality has been sublimated into the act of filmig and voyeurism, which has become a central subject in his cinema, not just a technique. "I'm finding out more about my own sexuality, who I am as a sexual person, and devoting my art to what I want to see, rather than what an audience wants."

Wryly, he commented. "You know, I feel like I'm looking for my Marlene Dietrich in an Industry that runs through girls." He sighed and then smiled. "They may not stick around long enough to develope their real potential, but,", he said with a gleam in his eye, "the search and the chase is the most important part!"
Charles Lonberger Beverly Hills Outlook