Ghosts in the Machine

By “machine” I mean the cinematic medium—that affair of celluloid, electric light, and whirring motors. By “ghost,” I mean the soul—soul of the art, soul of the artist. But is not the artwork’s soul, in a manner Descartes denied, diffused through its every lineament, peering out at every pore? So is suggested to me by the following three exemplary instances of dismantling and (in one instance) mantling of machines, each of which exhibits the soul of the artwork—and of the artist—of which it is part.