Where Did They Go?

No Gods Left is the permanent home of all my writings on the art of film.

So...who are the gods and where did they go? What happened to the old pantheons of great filmmakers? When will the next pantheon arrive?

The new title of this website comes from a Pliny the Younger quote featured as the title card in Paul WS Anderson's Pompeii (2014).

In the darkness you could hear the crying of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men. Some prayed for help. Others wished for death. But still more imagined that there were no Gods left, and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness. - Pliny the Younger, A.D. 7

The title will come as no surprise to any of my editors, who are likely familiar with (and perhaps even tired of) my frequent use of philosophical concepts and tools in my efforts to make sense of moving pictures. There are a few main reasons I chose No Gods Left: Toward A Millennium of Cinema. Each of the four points is paired with a quote from Pompeii.

To reflect and comment on the lack of providence in the state of North American cinema, one of the least inspired of all global cinemas.

Is this the end of the world? Why would the gods let this happen?

In reverence to the kinds of films and filmmakers I tend to write about with optimism: Paul WS Anderson, Baltic filmmakers, digital cinema (toward/future), and Chinese language films (Millennium Mambo). More generally, I want to celebrate the artists, like Timur Bekmambetov and Anderson, who are or have pushed the boundaries of the medium.

Now who's the poor bastard who has to die for my freedom?

To tease the lenses I often use to make sense of film, pulling from my higher education training in religious studies/theology/philosophy. The “gods” of the good, beautiful, and true often find their way into my writings on cinema.

And what is that worth? Senator Quintas Attius Corvus? You killed my family, you slaughtered my people, and make no mistake, my gods are coming for you.

4. And to reevaluate the old pantheon and the new, looking to define a new and subversive canon along the way.

My gods are coming for you.