We have learned in school the story of the Gorgon Medusa
whose face was so horrible that the sheer sight of it
turned man and beasts into stone
When Athen instigated Perseus to slay the monster,
she warned him never to look at its face
but only at its mirror reflection in the polished shield.
Following her advice Perseus cut off Medusa’s head.
The moral is that we do not, and cannot, see actual horrors
because they paralyze us with blinding fear;
and that we shall know what they look like
only by watching images which reproduce their appearance.
The cinema screen is Athena’s polishead shield.
[Radu Jude, Bad luck banging or looney porn (Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc)]