Riding the Knife’s Edge

By Timothy Rhys
URL: http://www.moviemaker.com/blog/item/riding_the_knifes_edge_20080621/
”I think it’s an illness,” director Isabel Coixet says of moviemaking. “It’s a virus you get somehow when you’re a kid and it’s always with you… There is a very specific word for that, a very scientific word called algolagnia. It’s the mixture between pleasure and pain. That’s why I say it’s a virus, because there’s no way you can get rid of it—no matter what.”

Isabel almost has it right. Algolagnia is defined as the pleasure one derives from inflicting or experiencing pain. But I get where she’s going with that quote, which comes from a new interview with her that will appear in the summer issue of MovieMaker. She’s saying that moviemaking is something that many of us can’t help doing because we’re hardwired to demand the kind of rush we only feel when riding that knife’s edge between security and risk, pleasure and pain, triumph and disaster. It’s not unique to moviemakers, of course—the same can be said of skydivers, high-stakes poker players and downhill skiers. Everyone who’s attracted to extreme activities craves a heightened sensation of being alive. Not to get all existential, but isn’t that what life is—a journey along the knife’s edge between heaven and hell? Moviemakers simply embrace the journey fearlessly, and enjoy the ride immensely.