Reading Response 10: Due April 19
Ray Privett & James Kreul, “A Cinema of Possibilities: Brian Frye Interview”
How does Frye relate his work (including his film programming) to the following movements / concepts / genres:
Performance (and performance art)
-He tends to poke fun at it a bit. The idea of not doing anything in front of a group of people is still performing, such as in "Brian Frye Fails to Masturbate".
Minimalism
-Frye doesn't like to call himself a minimalist, and he isn't trying to be one. However, he does admit that some of his films could fall into that category, and while he doesn't object to them being called that, he also doesn't promote them as such.
Fluxus
-Some of his work was certainly about the performance and the making of it, as well as being relatively simple, for example "Disappearing Music for Face".
--How does Frye respond to the question about what he “adds” to films such as Anatomy of Melancholy?
Scott MacDonald, “Maintenance”
--What are some of the reasons for rental income growth at Canyon Cinema between 1980 and 2003? How did Canyon distinguish itself from the Filmmakers Cooperative and the Museum of Modern Art?
Canyon Cinema can probably attribute rental income growth from the 1980s to the early 2000s to educational institutions teaching more avant-garde films and classes devoted to avant-garde films. They were able to distinguish themselves from the Filmmakers Cooperative and MoMA because they regularly updated and revised their catalogs with new and updated content, while the Filmmakers Coop and MoMA rarely did. The catalogs were also interesting, uniquely designed, and sometimes even contained surprise articles by filmmakers.
--What problems and controversies did video distribution cause for Canyon in the 1990s? To what degree were the sides of the debate related to the age of the filmmakers on each side? Based upon the interview with Dominic Angerame at the end of the chapter, what was his position on the video debate?
Canyon had to decide if they would allow video makers (instead of FILMmakers) into the group and allow them to vote and distribute their work. The older generation of filmmakers was more focused one the preservation of the work that Canyon already had, as well as keeping with their original bylaws that stated they worked with 16mm, 8mm, and other related light and image production media. The younger filmmakers were more keen to add video and were more open in general to the new technologies citing that if Canyon wanted to remain in business, they would have to be friendly to new technologies.
Angerame's views on the video debate were more neutral. He was more or less just concerned with keeping Canyon together and not letting it dissolve.
--What were the advantages and disadvantages to funding from the National Endowment from the Arts? What controversies developed related to the publication of Canyon Cinema Catalog #5?
The advantage of the funding from the National Endowment from the Arts was that they had stable funding for a number of years and didn't really have to worry about money. However, the government got involved and didn't approve of some of the things that were published in some of the catalog issues (such as male nudity and lesbian kissing -- stills from various films). In the end, the government's hold won and the NEA had to essentially pull all of their grant money from Canyon.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Reading Response 9
Catching up from last week: Christie Milliken, "The Pixel Visions of Sadie Benning"
1. How is Sadie Benning's work related to general trends and characteristics in Riot Grrl subculture? How is Riot Grrl subculture similar to and different from punk subculture?
Her work is done in a girl power, just do it sort of way. She promotes the idea of girls in punk and breaking away from their gender stereotypes both in her videos, as well as her own punk band and zine. Riot Grrl is similar to punk in that it’s more about the doing than the final product. One doesn’t need to know how to play an instrument in order to form a band. However, Riot Grrl subculture favors the females and encourage them to “get tough, get angry”.
2. Why does Milliken refer to Benning's work as visual essays? What are the advantages of viewing the work in relation to this genre? What is meant by "radical feminist essayistic" form?
Benning’s work can be considered a visual essay in the way that they are similar to adolescent diaries. Many young girls write in diaries, and Benning was able to bring that written word to life in her videos. They also follow the many forms of the written essay, which generally resist generic classification into one category or another.
Radical Feminist Essays are those in which the author, or filmmaker, sets out not only to persuade or answer a question, but they serve more to pose a question and make the reader/viewer think. The topic is also very often political, and the essay is used as a jumping off point from words to action.
Keller and Ward, "Matthew Barney and the Paradox of the Neo-Avant-Garde Blockbuster"
3. What has changed in the gallery art world that allows Barney to describe his work as “sculpture”? In other words, how has the definition of sculpture changed since the 1960s, and why?
The definition of “sculpture” has become a lot more broad and unstable, and it now ranges from media based works, to performances, to architecture. After Kranuss defined sculpture as an “expanded field” in 1979, art historians have been more open to the interpretation of the medium of sculpture.
4. Tricky but important question: Why was minimalist sculpture seen as a reaction against the “modernist hymns to the purity and specificity of aesthetic experience”? In other words: Why do they say that minimalist sculpture is post-modernist?
Minimalist sculpture worked to make the viewers of the piece more reflexively aware of themselves and their interaction with it. This goes along with the idea of postmodernism in that the role of the artist is questioned because “anyone could do this”. Medium specificity is brought into question and more mixing of medias is seen.
5. Describe the role of the body in the works of Vito Acconci and Chris Burden. You may wish to consult the following links to supplement the descriptions in the readings:
Acconci and Burden used their own bodies as minimalist sculpture. They would treat their bodies as objects, doing masochistic things to them (such as letting a volunteer from the audience put push pins into Burden’s skin)
5. In the opinion of the authors, what are the key differences between performance art of the 1960s/1970s and Barney’s Cremaster cycle? What do they mean by the term "blockbuster" in relation to the gallery art world?
The Cremaster films are deemed blockbusters in the gallery art world, because it (rumored) takes on the qualities of blockbuster films such as costing a lot of money to make, merchandise, and making a lot of money at the box office, which, by avant-garde and gallery standards, Cremester did.
His work is also very different from the performance art of the 60s and 70s because it didn’t have an underlying cause or purpose. Much of the performance art from the 60s/70s was a commentary on Vietnam, or atomic weapons.
Walley, "Modes of Film Practice in the Avant-Garde"
6. What is meant by “mode of film practice”? Give two well known examples of non-experimental modes of film practice. Why does Walley argue that the concept of the mode of film practice can help distinguish between the experimental film and gallery art worlds?
Modes of film practice refers to the cluster of historically bound institutions, practices, and concepts that form a context within which cinematic media are used, both in production, distribution and exhibition. Some non-experimental modes of film practice include art cinema by auteurs such as Godard and Fellini.
The mode of film practice may help distinguish between the experimental film and gallery art films because modes go beyond the general aesthetic qualities of the medium and look at the circumstances which they were made and in which they can be understood.
7. What are some of the key differences between the experimental and gallery art worlds in terms of production and distribution?
In the world of experimental film, collaboration between artists is not super common, and the distribution of work or “division of labor” between the director, cinematographer, sound mixer, etc. are all given credit at the end. In the art gallery world, however, collaboration between artists is common, and rarely is anyone given credit by the means of credits in a traditional film.
In distribution, avant-garde films aren’t given wide releases in theaters, and because funding comes mostly from private investors or grants, the artists no longer have enough money to strike many prints of the film in order to make money from distribution. In the art gallery world, however, having very few prints of a piece is something that is done on purpose, for the fewer prints there are, the more valuable it is seen in the art world.
1. How is Sadie Benning's work related to general trends and characteristics in Riot Grrl subculture? How is Riot Grrl subculture similar to and different from punk subculture?
Her work is done in a girl power, just do it sort of way. She promotes the idea of girls in punk and breaking away from their gender stereotypes both in her videos, as well as her own punk band and zine. Riot Grrl is similar to punk in that it’s more about the doing than the final product. One doesn’t need to know how to play an instrument in order to form a band. However, Riot Grrl subculture favors the females and encourage them to “get tough, get angry”.
2. Why does Milliken refer to Benning's work as visual essays? What are the advantages of viewing the work in relation to this genre? What is meant by "radical feminist essayistic" form?
Benning’s work can be considered a visual essay in the way that they are similar to adolescent diaries. Many young girls write in diaries, and Benning was able to bring that written word to life in her videos. They also follow the many forms of the written essay, which generally resist generic classification into one category or another.
Radical Feminist Essays are those in which the author, or filmmaker, sets out not only to persuade or answer a question, but they serve more to pose a question and make the reader/viewer think. The topic is also very often political, and the essay is used as a jumping off point from words to action.
Keller and Ward, "Matthew Barney and the Paradox of the Neo-Avant-Garde Blockbuster"
3. What has changed in the gallery art world that allows Barney to describe his work as “sculpture”? In other words, how has the definition of sculpture changed since the 1960s, and why?
The definition of “sculpture” has become a lot more broad and unstable, and it now ranges from media based works, to performances, to architecture. After Kranuss defined sculpture as an “expanded field” in 1979, art historians have been more open to the interpretation of the medium of sculpture.
4. Tricky but important question: Why was minimalist sculpture seen as a reaction against the “modernist hymns to the purity and specificity of aesthetic experience”? In other words: Why do they say that minimalist sculpture is post-modernist?
Minimalist sculpture worked to make the viewers of the piece more reflexively aware of themselves and their interaction with it. This goes along with the idea of postmodernism in that the role of the artist is questioned because “anyone could do this”. Medium specificity is brought into question and more mixing of medias is seen.
5. Describe the role of the body in the works of Vito Acconci and Chris Burden. You may wish to consult the following links to supplement the descriptions in the readings:
Acconci and Burden used their own bodies as minimalist sculpture. They would treat their bodies as objects, doing masochistic things to them (such as letting a volunteer from the audience put push pins into Burden’s skin)
5. In the opinion of the authors, what are the key differences between performance art of the 1960s/1970s and Barney’s Cremaster cycle? What do they mean by the term "blockbuster" in relation to the gallery art world?
The Cremaster films are deemed blockbusters in the gallery art world, because it (rumored) takes on the qualities of blockbuster films such as costing a lot of money to make, merchandise, and making a lot of money at the box office, which, by avant-garde and gallery standards, Cremester did.
His work is also very different from the performance art of the 60s and 70s because it didn’t have an underlying cause or purpose. Much of the performance art from the 60s/70s was a commentary on Vietnam, or atomic weapons.
Walley, "Modes of Film Practice in the Avant-Garde"
6. What is meant by “mode of film practice”? Give two well known examples of non-experimental modes of film practice. Why does Walley argue that the concept of the mode of film practice can help distinguish between the experimental film and gallery art worlds?
Modes of film practice refers to the cluster of historically bound institutions, practices, and concepts that form a context within which cinematic media are used, both in production, distribution and exhibition. Some non-experimental modes of film practice include art cinema by auteurs such as Godard and Fellini.
The mode of film practice may help distinguish between the experimental film and gallery art films because modes go beyond the general aesthetic qualities of the medium and look at the circumstances which they were made and in which they can be understood.
7. What are some of the key differences between the experimental and gallery art worlds in terms of production and distribution?
In the world of experimental film, collaboration between artists is not super common, and the distribution of work or “division of labor” between the director, cinematographer, sound mixer, etc. are all given credit at the end. In the art gallery world, however, collaboration between artists is common, and rarely is anyone given credit by the means of credits in a traditional film.
In distribution, avant-garde films aren’t given wide releases in theaters, and because funding comes mostly from private investors or grants, the artists no longer have enough money to strike many prints of the film in order to make money from distribution. In the art gallery world, however, having very few prints of a piece is something that is done on purpose, for the fewer prints there are, the more valuable it is seen in the art world.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Post-Spring Break Response
I quite enjoyed (nostalgia). The cleverness of having the description read to us before we ever see the picture helps the audience to get into the same feelings as the narrator. I also loved the way the pictures burned with the coils blackening, and then watching as the tiniest bits of remnants would finally burn away. Once you figure out what exactly is happening, it's almost like a game, trying to remember what the narrator said about the picture you are about to see, while still enjoying the picture that he just explained to you. One of my favorites so far.
Sitney, “Structural Film”
2. How is structural film different from the tradition of Deren/Brakhage/Anger, and what are its four typical characteristics?
The traditions of Brakhage/Deren/Anger's structure where the shape of the film is predetermined and extremely important. While in structural film, the shape is there, but less important than the film's outline.
The four typical characteristics of structural film are, the fixed camera, the flicker effect, loop printing, and rephotography off the screen.
3. If Brakhage’s cinema emphasized metaphors of perception, vision, and body movement, what is the central metaphor of structural film? Hint: It fits into Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde that we have discussed previously in class.
Structural film is a cinema of the mind rather than a cinema of the eye. Instead of trying to represent exactly what the eye sees, like Brakhage, the structuralist filmmakers attempted to represent a mindset, or simply the human mind in general.
4. Why does Sitney argue that Andy Warhol is the major precursor to the structural film?
Sitney argues that Warhol is the major precursor to structural film because he left all of the technical parts out, he was more focused on performance and the film itself. The structure is set, and whatever comes from it will come from it. His films were long, and challenged the viewer who was watching to stay engaged, or if not, question themselves as to why they were not, and explore the consciousness of being conscious of watching a film.
5. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:
a. Why does Sitney call Warhol anti-Romantic?
Because Warhol called himself anti-romantic. He made films that showed how similar and romantic the other avant-garde films at the time were.
b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr cannot be reconciled?
Because their decisions as to why they used a fixed camera position or not were so similar.
c. What is meant by the phrase “conscious ontology of the viewing experience”? How does this relate to Warhol’s films? How does this relate to structural films?
It means being conscious of watching a film as a film. This fits into structuralism because it deals with the workings of the mind and consciousness. As for Warhol, he was looking for the same consciousness, but of the audience being conscious of watching the film, and not another consciousness.
d. Why does Sitney argue that structural film is related to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition, and in fact responds to Warhol’s attack on that tradition by using Warhol’s own tactics?
Structural film orchestrates the sameness and the duration, looking to focus the audience's attention on certain things because of the sameness of it all. Warhol, on the other hand, challenged the audience more as an experiment in a less thought out way, to make the viewer aware of their viewing.
6. What metaphor is crucial to Sitney’s and Annette Michelson’s interpretation of Michael Snow’s Wavelength?
The film is a metaphor for consciousness itself, in that it starts with a question, and eventually answers in in what the viewer should be looking at, and throughout we answer the question ourselves, and are extremely conscious that is what we are doing.
Sitney, “Structural Film”
2. How is structural film different from the tradition of Deren/Brakhage/Anger, and what are its four typical characteristics?
The traditions of Brakhage/Deren/Anger's structure where the shape of the film is predetermined and extremely important. While in structural film, the shape is there, but less important than the film's outline.
The four typical characteristics of structural film are, the fixed camera, the flicker effect, loop printing, and rephotography off the screen.
3. If Brakhage’s cinema emphasized metaphors of perception, vision, and body movement, what is the central metaphor of structural film? Hint: It fits into Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde that we have discussed previously in class.
Structural film is a cinema of the mind rather than a cinema of the eye. Instead of trying to represent exactly what the eye sees, like Brakhage, the structuralist filmmakers attempted to represent a mindset, or simply the human mind in general.
4. Why does Sitney argue that Andy Warhol is the major precursor to the structural film?
Sitney argues that Warhol is the major precursor to structural film because he left all of the technical parts out, he was more focused on performance and the film itself. The structure is set, and whatever comes from it will come from it. His films were long, and challenged the viewer who was watching to stay engaged, or if not, question themselves as to why they were not, and explore the consciousness of being conscious of watching a film.
5. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:
a. Why does Sitney call Warhol anti-Romantic?
Because Warhol called himself anti-romantic. He made films that showed how similar and romantic the other avant-garde films at the time were.
b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr cannot be reconciled?
Because their decisions as to why they used a fixed camera position or not were so similar.
c. What is meant by the phrase “conscious ontology of the viewing experience”? How does this relate to Warhol’s films? How does this relate to structural films?
It means being conscious of watching a film as a film. This fits into structuralism because it deals with the workings of the mind and consciousness. As for Warhol, he was looking for the same consciousness, but of the audience being conscious of watching the film, and not another consciousness.
d. Why does Sitney argue that structural film is related to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition, and in fact responds to Warhol’s attack on that tradition by using Warhol’s own tactics?
Structural film orchestrates the sameness and the duration, looking to focus the audience's attention on certain things because of the sameness of it all. Warhol, on the other hand, challenged the audience more as an experiment in a less thought out way, to make the viewer aware of their viewing.
6. What metaphor is crucial to Sitney’s and Annette Michelson’s interpretation of Michael Snow’s Wavelength?
The film is a metaphor for consciousness itself, in that it starts with a question, and eventually answers in in what the viewer should be looking at, and throughout we answer the question ourselves, and are extremely conscious that is what we are doing.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Fuses Response
In this film I can certainly see the Brakhage influence with all of the painting on film, scratching, and manipulation of speed and color. Yet, at the same time, she makes it her own. I may be mistaken, but the way she paints over the sequences of her and her husband stand out and unique to her. Brakhage filmed people and distorted them, and he painted on film, but I don't recall a time where Brakhage took black and white footage and then painted over on that. I think most of his painting was on clear leader. (Disclaimer: I have not seen enough of Brakhage's work to be super certain on this, I'm just going off of the things I have seen both in this class and others.)
There are also times when the color stays consistent between the highlights, lowlights, and midtones, so I wonder if this is some sort of tinting instead of painting.
Overall, it seems a bit of a slap in the face to Brakhage, as this was a response to his film, Loving. She blatantly uses his techniques, but just does them "better". I wonder what Brakhage thought of the film?
There are also times when the color stays consistent between the highlights, lowlights, and midtones, so I wonder if this is some sort of tinting instead of painting.
Overall, it seems a bit of a slap in the face to Brakhage, as this was a response to his film, Loving. She blatantly uses his techniques, but just does them "better". I wonder what Brakhage thought of the film?
Monday, February 22, 2010
Chelsea Girls Response
The lighting used in The Chelsea Girls is a performance in itself. This film would not have the same feel or impact if we saw these people with normal 3-point, un-colored lighting. There is also a lot of camera movement, something we aren't used to seeing from Warhol. But again, the film would not have the same affect or feel if it were a static camera.
Both the lights and the camera movement add to the sense of immediacy. It helps the audience to feel as if they were there, and not just there, but there in the same (drug induced, crazy, incredibly egotistical) state as those we are watching.
With the lights and the camera movement combined, as well as the double projection, it becomes a full visual experience instead of just watching/listening to some people talk about some crazy shit.
In regards to the split projection, sometimes you don't even notice the second screen, but other times I found myself dying to know what was happening on the silent projection and desperately wanted the sound to switch to the other projection.
Overall, on first viewing, it is an extremely overwhelming experience, although (if I wasn't trying to ward off a migraine) an enjoyable one.
Both the lights and the camera movement add to the sense of immediacy. It helps the audience to feel as if they were there, and not just there, but there in the same (drug induced, crazy, incredibly egotistical) state as those we are watching.
With the lights and the camera movement combined, as well as the double projection, it becomes a full visual experience instead of just watching/listening to some people talk about some crazy shit.
In regards to the split projection, sometimes you don't even notice the second screen, but other times I found myself dying to know what was happening on the silent projection and desperately wanted the sound to switch to the other projection.
Overall, on first viewing, it is an extremely overwhelming experience, although (if I wasn't trying to ward off a migraine) an enjoyable one.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Reading Response 5
J. Hoberman, Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Underground
1. What were some of the venues associated with the early underground film movement in New York City? What were some of the unique characteristics of the Charles Theater and its programming?
Fashion Industries Auditorium, The Charles, The Thalia, The New Yorker, The Bleeker Street Cinema. The Charles Theater was more “seedy” than the other ones where the high class mixed with the lower classes. They also often played Ukranian films that were extremely popular, and started the cult tradition of midnight screenings.
2. Which filmmakers did Jonas Mekas associate with the “Baudelairean Cinema”? Why did Mekas use that term, and what were the distinguishing characteristics of the films?
Flaming Creatures, The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man, Blonde Cobra, and Little Stabs at Happiness were associated with “Baudelairean Cinema”. He used that term because Baudelaire was a writer who helped to revolutionize world literature a century prior, and these films were “the real revolution in cinema” of that time. These films were not afraid to delve into delicate and dirty things, perversity, and they were without sexual inhibitions or inhibitions of any kind.
3. Why did underground films run into legal trouble in New York City in 1964? What film encountered legal problems in Los Angeles almost on the same day as Mekas’s second arrest in New York City?
Underground films ran into trouble in NYC in 1964 because NYC was trying to clean up it’s act for the 1964 World’s Fair. Scorpio Rising encountered legal problems in LA the same day as Mekas’ second arrest in NYC.
4. What were some of the defining characteristics of Andy Warhol’s collaboration with Ronald Tavel? What were some of the unique characteristics of Vinyl? How does Edie Sedgewick end up "stealing" the scene in Vinyl?
Warhol’s collaborations with Tavel culminated in actors who didn’t know their lines, were afraid of being in front of the camera, came and went whenever they wanted, all while the camera was pointed in their general direction and ran until the film ran out.
Vinyl, extremely loosely based on the novel A Clockwork Orange, was shot in real time with a single camera setup, performers read lines from cue cards. Edie Sedgewick stole the scene by simply being “spaced out” and present consistently at screen right to add to compositional balance.
5. In what ways did the underground film begin to "crossover" into the mainstream in 1965-1966? What films and venues were associated with the crossover? How were the films received by the mainstream New York press?
Warhol’s, My Hustler, was to be his first popular success and was showed in midnight screenings at the Cinematheque. Then Chelsea Girls came out, and Newsweek called it “The Illiad of the underground” while the New York Times said Warhol was “pushing a reckless thing too far”. The Film-Makers’ Cinematheque was the main venue associated with the crossover, because it was too small to hold the number of people who wound up wanting to see Chelsea Girls. It then moved to theaters like The Regency and the Cinema Rendezvous. Chelsea Girls also played in LA, Dallas, Washington, San Francisco, Buffalo, Cambrige, Houston, Atlanta, and St. Louis, as well as being invited to the Cannes Film Festival.
6. Why was John Getz an important figure in the crossover of the underground?
Getz packaged programs of underground films and sent them to a circuit of movie houses owned by his uncle in 22 cities. They were immensely popular, and Getz is credited for introducing underground cinema to the American heartland.
7. How do Hoberman and Rosenbaum characterize Warhol’s post-1967 films?
None of them were again truly directed by Warhol after his attempted assassination, and they began to turn a lot more pornographic.
1. What were some of the venues associated with the early underground film movement in New York City? What were some of the unique characteristics of the Charles Theater and its programming?
Fashion Industries Auditorium, The Charles, The Thalia, The New Yorker, The Bleeker Street Cinema. The Charles Theater was more “seedy” than the other ones where the high class mixed with the lower classes. They also often played Ukranian films that were extremely popular, and started the cult tradition of midnight screenings.
2. Which filmmakers did Jonas Mekas associate with the “Baudelairean Cinema”? Why did Mekas use that term, and what were the distinguishing characteristics of the films?
Flaming Creatures, The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man, Blonde Cobra, and Little Stabs at Happiness were associated with “Baudelairean Cinema”. He used that term because Baudelaire was a writer who helped to revolutionize world literature a century prior, and these films were “the real revolution in cinema” of that time. These films were not afraid to delve into delicate and dirty things, perversity, and they were without sexual inhibitions or inhibitions of any kind.
3. Why did underground films run into legal trouble in New York City in 1964? What film encountered legal problems in Los Angeles almost on the same day as Mekas’s second arrest in New York City?
Underground films ran into trouble in NYC in 1964 because NYC was trying to clean up it’s act for the 1964 World’s Fair. Scorpio Rising encountered legal problems in LA the same day as Mekas’ second arrest in NYC.
4. What were some of the defining characteristics of Andy Warhol’s collaboration with Ronald Tavel? What were some of the unique characteristics of Vinyl? How does Edie Sedgewick end up "stealing" the scene in Vinyl?
Warhol’s collaborations with Tavel culminated in actors who didn’t know their lines, were afraid of being in front of the camera, came and went whenever they wanted, all while the camera was pointed in their general direction and ran until the film ran out.
Vinyl, extremely loosely based on the novel A Clockwork Orange, was shot in real time with a single camera setup, performers read lines from cue cards. Edie Sedgewick stole the scene by simply being “spaced out” and present consistently at screen right to add to compositional balance.
5. In what ways did the underground film begin to "crossover" into the mainstream in 1965-1966? What films and venues were associated with the crossover? How were the films received by the mainstream New York press?
Warhol’s, My Hustler, was to be his first popular success and was showed in midnight screenings at the Cinematheque. Then Chelsea Girls came out, and Newsweek called it “The Illiad of the underground” while the New York Times said Warhol was “pushing a reckless thing too far”. The Film-Makers’ Cinematheque was the main venue associated with the crossover, because it was too small to hold the number of people who wound up wanting to see Chelsea Girls. It then moved to theaters like The Regency and the Cinema Rendezvous. Chelsea Girls also played in LA, Dallas, Washington, San Francisco, Buffalo, Cambrige, Houston, Atlanta, and St. Louis, as well as being invited to the Cannes Film Festival.
6. Why was John Getz an important figure in the crossover of the underground?
Getz packaged programs of underground films and sent them to a circuit of movie houses owned by his uncle in 22 cities. They were immensely popular, and Getz is credited for introducing underground cinema to the American heartland.
7. How do Hoberman and Rosenbaum characterize Warhol’s post-1967 films?
None of them were again truly directed by Warhol after his attempted assassination, and they began to turn a lot more pornographic.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Kiss and Mario Banana response
A theme I saw in both Kiss and Mario Banana was the blurring of gender roles. In the first male-male kiss in Kiss, it took me a minute to realize that the man on the bottom was, indeed, a man. By having so many heterosexual couples kissing, one assumes the theme will simply continue.
The same goes for Mario Banana, in the idea that we have a man, dressed as a woman, seducing, whom? Is he seducing a man? A woman? Another transvestite? I suppose he is attempting to seduce anyone who watches the film, which is why his gender is so ambiguous.
Overall, very ahead of its time pieces, and certainly ones that make us consider how we have been raised to view gender roles.
The same goes for Mario Banana, in the idea that we have a man, dressed as a woman, seducing, whom? Is he seducing a man? A woman? Another transvestite? I suppose he is attempting to seduce anyone who watches the film, which is why his gender is so ambiguous.
Overall, very ahead of its time pieces, and certainly ones that make us consider how we have been raised to view gender roles.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Reading/Viewing response 4
1. Briefly respond to one of the following Fluxfilms, which are on-line here:
14 Yoko Ono—One
I liked this fluxfilm better than the Yoko Ono one we watched in class that was filmed with a high speed camera of her “un-smiling”. This one I felt wasn’t quite so slow, and was actually quite intriguing to watch. It is something that we’ve all done. Light a match. But I would dare say very few of us have lit a match in slow motion. It’s taking a closer look at an everyday thing, which I enjoyed. I also like how the
2. Look up “Fluxus” and any of the Fluxus artists in the index of Visionary Film. Why are they not there? Are the Fluxfilms compatible with Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde?
Fluxus does not fit with Sitney's argument on the American avant-garde because his argument is that the "American avant-garde filmmakers aspire to represent the human mind." Fluxus films are films that anyone can make and don't try to represent the human mind or psyche. Fluxus was more about the act of creating the art than the art itself and the ideology that goes into it.
Mary Jordan, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
3. Chapter 4. What are some of the reasons suggested for Smith’s obsession with Maria Montez? What are some of your responses to the clips from the Montez films (especially Cobra Woman)?
She was a diva actress whom many gay men could associate with, and she brought her “oppressed” audience into these fantasy worlds. Fantasy worlds that Jack Smith was so enthralled with and obsessed with in his own art.
The Montez films seem very staged, very old Hollywood. It’s a bit surprising that Smith was so taken aback by these films, yet at the same time, they hold the same aesthetic of being staged and dramatic and fanciful.
4. Chapter 5. What were some attributes of the New York art community in the 1960s, and what was the relationship between the economics of the time and the materials that Smith incorporated in to his work and films? [How could Smith survive and make art if he was so poor in the city so big they named it twice?]
It was an open and free environment where artists could work wherever they wanted on whatever they wanted. The artists of New York were more of a cohesive group. They attempted to create all the glitz and glamour of New York on a very small budget, so they would take things out of the dumpsters from behind department stores (mannequins, clothing, fabric, etc.)
5. Chapter 6. What problems emerged after the obscenity charges against Flaming Creatures in the relationship between Jack Smith and Jonas Mekas? What metaphor emerged from the conflict between Smith and Mekas?
Jonas made as much money off Smith’s films (esp. Flaming Creatures) and give little or nothing to Smith. The “lobsterism” metaphor emerged that lobsters take and scavenge only for themselves.
6. Chapter 7. What is John Zorn’s argument about Normal Love? How does his argument relate to some of the changes in the New York art world in the 1960s that we discussed in class? What are some arguments made about the influence of Jack Smith on other filmmakers (including Warhol)?
He thought the real show was the actual filming, not the film itself. This goes along with the idea that film was supposed to be interactive, and the fact that artmaking was the art, and not the end result.
Warhol filmed Smith while he filmed Normal Love. A lot of Warhol’s sensibilities came from Jack, and a lot of current artists site Warhol as a muse, but not Jack. It serves as a sort of domino effect. Other people took things that Smith did and became more successful with it. For example, Fellini used a lot of Smith’s ideas and imagery in his films.
7. Chapter 9 and 10: In what ways did Jack Smith become “uncommercial film personified”? What is meant by the slogan, “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?
He would play his own music at the showings of the films and edit it as the film was showing. I think “no more masterpieces” meant he would no longer finish anything completely, because then things could no longer be banned, and no one else could “take the travel” out of it like Mekes had done, and the only way it could be shown was on his terms.
He resisted commodification by doing the art only for himself and the experience. He saw ownership of things as “landlordism” and that people shouldn’t own property or things. He hated capitalism. But he would give free shows in his apartment for plays and whatnot.
Callie Angell, “Andy Warhol, Filmmaker”
8. How does Angell characterize the first major period of Warhol’s filmmaking career? What are some of the films from this period, and what formal qualities did they share? What are some significant differences between Sleep and Empire?
Warhol’s first period was made up of silent, minimalist films which were extremely long, and static shots set up on a tripod. Sleep and Empire are both examples, as well as Kiss, Haircut, Blow Job, Eat, and Henry Geldzahler. These were more focused on the artform of what Angell calls “publicity” – an art form that Warhol pretty much created and capitalized upon.
The differences between Sleep and Empire are that Sleep was filmed from different angles and different intervals and was edited together by Warhol. Empire was a single shot on an entirely stationary camera of a subject that would also not move, The Empire State Building.
9. What role did the Screen Tests play in the routines at the Factory and in Warhol’s filmmaking?
The Screen Tests served as a strict example of Warhol’s style at the Factory and his filmmaking in general, in that, they exemplified his filmmaking as a “continuous, cumulative mode of serial production.” He was always making films of whomever decided to stop by, and very oftentimes in strikingly similar, if not identical, forms.
10. How does Angell characterize the first period of sound films in Warhol’s filmmaking career? Who was Warhol’s key collaborator for the early sound films? What are some of the films from this period and what formal properties did they share?
Warhol collaborated mainly with Ronald Tavel when it came to sound films. Some of the first films consist of Vinyl, Poor Little Rich Girl, Restaurant, and Afternoon. All of these but Vinyl were focused on Edie Sedgwick (although she was also in Vinyl) and her living her everyday life. These followed the portrait films that he had made all along. In these films, camera movement was much more readily used, and he tried to focus on non-acting, more documentary style.
14 Yoko Ono—One
I liked this fluxfilm better than the Yoko Ono one we watched in class that was filmed with a high speed camera of her “un-smiling”. This one I felt wasn’t quite so slow, and was actually quite intriguing to watch. It is something that we’ve all done. Light a match. But I would dare say very few of us have lit a match in slow motion. It’s taking a closer look at an everyday thing, which I enjoyed. I also like how the
2. Look up “Fluxus” and any of the Fluxus artists in the index of Visionary Film. Why are they not there? Are the Fluxfilms compatible with Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde?
Fluxus does not fit with Sitney's argument on the American avant-garde because his argument is that the "American avant-garde filmmakers aspire to represent the human mind." Fluxus films are films that anyone can make and don't try to represent the human mind or psyche. Fluxus was more about the act of creating the art than the art itself and the ideology that goes into it.
Mary Jordan, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
3. Chapter 4. What are some of the reasons suggested for Smith’s obsession with Maria Montez? What are some of your responses to the clips from the Montez films (especially Cobra Woman)?
She was a diva actress whom many gay men could associate with, and she brought her “oppressed” audience into these fantasy worlds. Fantasy worlds that Jack Smith was so enthralled with and obsessed with in his own art.
The Montez films seem very staged, very old Hollywood. It’s a bit surprising that Smith was so taken aback by these films, yet at the same time, they hold the same aesthetic of being staged and dramatic and fanciful.
4. Chapter 5. What were some attributes of the New York art community in the 1960s, and what was the relationship between the economics of the time and the materials that Smith incorporated in to his work and films? [How could Smith survive and make art if he was so poor in the city so big they named it twice?]
It was an open and free environment where artists could work wherever they wanted on whatever they wanted. The artists of New York were more of a cohesive group. They attempted to create all the glitz and glamour of New York on a very small budget, so they would take things out of the dumpsters from behind department stores (mannequins, clothing, fabric, etc.)
5. Chapter 6. What problems emerged after the obscenity charges against Flaming Creatures in the relationship between Jack Smith and Jonas Mekas? What metaphor emerged from the conflict between Smith and Mekas?
Jonas made as much money off Smith’s films (esp. Flaming Creatures) and give little or nothing to Smith. The “lobsterism” metaphor emerged that lobsters take and scavenge only for themselves.
6. Chapter 7. What is John Zorn’s argument about Normal Love? How does his argument relate to some of the changes in the New York art world in the 1960s that we discussed in class? What are some arguments made about the influence of Jack Smith on other filmmakers (including Warhol)?
He thought the real show was the actual filming, not the film itself. This goes along with the idea that film was supposed to be interactive, and the fact that artmaking was the art, and not the end result.
Warhol filmed Smith while he filmed Normal Love. A lot of Warhol’s sensibilities came from Jack, and a lot of current artists site Warhol as a muse, but not Jack. It serves as a sort of domino effect. Other people took things that Smith did and became more successful with it. For example, Fellini used a lot of Smith’s ideas and imagery in his films.
7. Chapter 9 and 10: In what ways did Jack Smith become “uncommercial film personified”? What is meant by the slogan, “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?
He would play his own music at the showings of the films and edit it as the film was showing. I think “no more masterpieces” meant he would no longer finish anything completely, because then things could no longer be banned, and no one else could “take the travel” out of it like Mekes had done, and the only way it could be shown was on his terms.
He resisted commodification by doing the art only for himself and the experience. He saw ownership of things as “landlordism” and that people shouldn’t own property or things. He hated capitalism. But he would give free shows in his apartment for plays and whatnot.
Callie Angell, “Andy Warhol, Filmmaker”
8. How does Angell characterize the first major period of Warhol’s filmmaking career? What are some of the films from this period, and what formal qualities did they share? What are some significant differences between Sleep and Empire?
Warhol’s first period was made up of silent, minimalist films which were extremely long, and static shots set up on a tripod. Sleep and Empire are both examples, as well as Kiss, Haircut, Blow Job, Eat, and Henry Geldzahler. These were more focused on the artform of what Angell calls “publicity” – an art form that Warhol pretty much created and capitalized upon.
The differences between Sleep and Empire are that Sleep was filmed from different angles and different intervals and was edited together by Warhol. Empire was a single shot on an entirely stationary camera of a subject that would also not move, The Empire State Building.
9. What role did the Screen Tests play in the routines at the Factory and in Warhol’s filmmaking?
The Screen Tests served as a strict example of Warhol’s style at the Factory and his filmmaking in general, in that, they exemplified his filmmaking as a “continuous, cumulative mode of serial production.” He was always making films of whomever decided to stop by, and very oftentimes in strikingly similar, if not identical, forms.
10. How does Angell characterize the first period of sound films in Warhol’s filmmaking career? Who was Warhol’s key collaborator for the early sound films? What are some of the films from this period and what formal properties did they share?
Warhol collaborated mainly with Ronald Tavel when it came to sound films. Some of the first films consist of Vinyl, Poor Little Rich Girl, Restaurant, and Afternoon. All of these but Vinyl were focused on Edie Sedgwick (although she was also in Vinyl) and her living her everyday life. These followed the portrait films that he had made all along. In these films, camera movement was much more readily used, and he tried to focus on non-acting, more documentary style.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Reading Response 3
1. Post your response to Brakhage's Prelude: Dog Star Man.
In the beginning I saw some superimpositions of fire mixed with car headlights, and I saw this as fire being something from man's past, something primal, and headlights being man's present and something modern, and Dogstarman is going to be mixing the two. I also saw the footage of the mountain mixed in with images of the sun and the moon to say that climbing this mountain is going to be a very large job to tackle.
Even a mountain seems small in comparison to the sun. He then mixes in footage of blood cells, as if to say, something as tiny as blood cells are what will allow dogstarman to climb such a huge mountain.
Sitney, “Apocalypses and Picaresques”
2. Why does Sitney argue that synechdoche plays a major role in Christopher Maclaine’s The End, and how does the film anticipate later achievements by Brakhage and the mythopoeic form?
The End is a film about the end of the world, and synecdoche is representing a part for a whole. The film itself is a synecdoche, the film itself is a part of the end of the world. Brakhage took things like direct address and indirect narration from MacLaine and used them later in his own films.
3. What are some similarities and differences between the apocalyptic visions of Christopher Maclaine and Bruce Conner?
They both take on a sort of comedic or hopeful aspect at one point, Conner's moving in and out between the terrible and the ridiculous, while MacLaine's film gives gradual inklings of hope right before the end of The End.
4. Why are the films of Ron Rice (The Flower Thief) and Robert Nelson (The Great Blondino) examples of Beat sensibility and what Sitney calls the picaresque form?
They portray the absured, anarchistic visions while providinga portrait of the Beat City of San Fransisco. The picaresque elements of their films makes them able to have a series of episodes, the middle of which could be endlessly expanded.
Bruce Jenkins, “Fluxfilms in Three False Starts.”
5. How and why were the “anti-art” Fluxfilms reactions against the avant-garde films of Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger. [Hint: Think about Fluxus in relation to earlier anti-art such as Dada, and Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain."]
They emulated old Hollywood films and sight gags that were used in old Chaplain films and other slapstick comedies. They also use the space of the film and overall just use it in ways that slightly poke fun at the others, they aren't trying to be entirely serious and introspective, but rather ironic. They also replaced the super personal aspects of Anger and Brakhage's films with things that were more institutional, or nothing at all.
6. What does Jenkins mean by the democratization of production in the Fluxfilms?
He means that things could easily be reproduced, and instead of slaving for hours over a few frames (like Anger or Brakhage) they could produce film 'by the yard'.
7. Why does Jenkins argue that Nam June Paik’s Zen for Film “fixed the material and aesthetic terms for the production of subsequent Fluxfilms”? How does it use the materials of the cinema? What kind of aesthetic experience does it offer?
It showed that one didn't have to have much of anything to create a film. Just some clear leader and some dust and the film could make itself. It uses the materials of the cinema by using a projector, some clear leader film, and waiting to see what you see... something different everytime.
In the beginning I saw some superimpositions of fire mixed with car headlights, and I saw this as fire being something from man's past, something primal, and headlights being man's present and something modern, and Dogstarman is going to be mixing the two. I also saw the footage of the mountain mixed in with images of the sun and the moon to say that climbing this mountain is going to be a very large job to tackle.
Even a mountain seems small in comparison to the sun. He then mixes in footage of blood cells, as if to say, something as tiny as blood cells are what will allow dogstarman to climb such a huge mountain.
Sitney, “Apocalypses and Picaresques”
2. Why does Sitney argue that synechdoche plays a major role in Christopher Maclaine’s The End, and how does the film anticipate later achievements by Brakhage and the mythopoeic form?
The End is a film about the end of the world, and synecdoche is representing a part for a whole. The film itself is a synecdoche, the film itself is a part of the end of the world. Brakhage took things like direct address and indirect narration from MacLaine and used them later in his own films.
3. What are some similarities and differences between the apocalyptic visions of Christopher Maclaine and Bruce Conner?
They both take on a sort of comedic or hopeful aspect at one point, Conner's moving in and out between the terrible and the ridiculous, while MacLaine's film gives gradual inklings of hope right before the end of The End.
4. Why are the films of Ron Rice (The Flower Thief) and Robert Nelson (The Great Blondino) examples of Beat sensibility and what Sitney calls the picaresque form?
They portray the absured, anarchistic visions while providinga portrait of the Beat City of San Fransisco. The picaresque elements of their films makes them able to have a series of episodes, the middle of which could be endlessly expanded.
Bruce Jenkins, “Fluxfilms in Three False Starts.”
5. How and why were the “anti-art” Fluxfilms reactions against the avant-garde films of Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger. [Hint: Think about Fluxus in relation to earlier anti-art such as Dada, and Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain."]
They emulated old Hollywood films and sight gags that were used in old Chaplain films and other slapstick comedies. They also use the space of the film and overall just use it in ways that slightly poke fun at the others, they aren't trying to be entirely serious and introspective, but rather ironic. They also replaced the super personal aspects of Anger and Brakhage's films with things that were more institutional, or nothing at all.
6. What does Jenkins mean by the democratization of production in the Fluxfilms?
He means that things could easily be reproduced, and instead of slaving for hours over a few frames (like Anger or Brakhage) they could produce film 'by the yard'.
7. Why does Jenkins argue that Nam June Paik’s Zen for Film “fixed the material and aesthetic terms for the production of subsequent Fluxfilms”? How does it use the materials of the cinema? What kind of aesthetic experience does it offer?
It showed that one didn't have to have much of anything to create a film. Just some clear leader and some dust and the film could make itself. It uses the materials of the cinema by using a projector, some clear leader film, and waiting to see what you see... something different everytime.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Brakhage, Lyrical Film, and The Cage
Sitney, “The Lyrical Film”
1. While Brakhage’s Reflections on Black is a trance film, why does Sitney argue that it anticipates the lyrical film?
Reflections on Black anticipates the lyrical film because it shows the "visions" of a blind man. It is from the blind man's POV most of the time, therefore putting him behind the camera and letting the audience "see what he sees".
2. What are the key characteristics of the lyrical film (the first example of which was Anticipation of the Night).
3. Which filmmaker was highly influential on Brakhage’s move to lyrical film in terms of film style, and why?
Joseph Cornell was highly influential on Brackhage’s lyrical films because he was the one who first forced Brakhage to make a film without any skeletal drama and without a person as the main subject.
4. What does Sitney mean by "hard" and "soft" montage? What examples of each does he give from Anticipation of the Night? {Tricky question; read the entire passage very carefully.]
Hard montage being the juxtaposition of two completely different ideals such as day and night, while soft montage eases the viewer into the juxtapositions by creating a sort of pattern with camera movements or colors which ease the viewer into the next juxtaposition and makes it less jarring.
There is hard montage by juxtaposing children at a carnival with shots of a moon, and soft cutting with the colors of sleeping children and temple scenes with blues and yellows, moving into shots of exotic animals and more shots of the same things, but with color changes.
5. What are the characteristics of vision according to Brakhage’s revival of the Romantic dialectics of sight and imagination? [I’m not asking here about film style, I’m asking about Brakhage’s views about vision.]
He talks about how we are trained to look at things in a certain way, and he wants to try and capture the “untrained eye” and what it might see, the colors, the way it is framed, etc.
Sitney, “Major Mythopoeia”
6. Why does Sitney argue, “It was Brakhage, of all the major American avant-garde filmmakers, who first embraced the formal directives and verbal aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism.”
By covering the surface of the film with paint and scratched, he eliminated the “perfect picture” that film provides, and garnered a more expressionistic view of what was filmed.
7. What archetypes are significant motifs in Dog Star Man, and which writers in what movement are associated with these four states of existence?
Innocence, experience, rationalism, and imagination. This is associated with William Blake and the romantics.
Sitney, "The Potted Psalm"
[This is an addition to the syllabus. After reading the introductory paragraphs, focus on the discussions of The Cage and Entr'acte (p. 47-54 and The Lead Shoes (p. 68-70).]
8. According to Sitney, what stylistic techniques are used to mark perspective and subjectivity in The Cage, and why is this an important development in the American avant-garde film?
The distorted imagery of the film represents that of the perspective of “the eye” He uses other new techniques such as a spinning camera intercut with flying furniture to subvert our gravitational orientation. This is important to American avant-garde film because he breaks new ground, uses radical techniques to demonstrate Romantic ideals, something that didn’t really come about until much later.
9. For Sitney, what are the key similarities and differences between Entr'acte and The Cage?
Entr’acte is more of a satire than The Cage, but they both draw inspiration from slapstick comedy.
10. How does Peterson synthesize the seemingly incongruent suggestions of his Workshop 20 students into The Lead Shoes?
He turned their ideas into two “ballads” which become irrational and disjunctive after a period of time, and weave them together.
11. Compare your response to The Lead Shoes with the descriptions by Sitney and Parker Tyler.
I correctly assumed that the hopscotch represented something to do with the woman, but instead of a balancing act (as Sitney suggests) I felt it represented a sort of cyclical notion of doing a lot but not getting anywhere. I failed to get the Cain and Abel reference, as well as the birth/death of the scuba diver.
1. While Brakhage’s Reflections on Black is a trance film, why does Sitney argue that it anticipates the lyrical film?
Reflections on Black anticipates the lyrical film because it shows the "visions" of a blind man. It is from the blind man's POV most of the time, therefore putting him behind the camera and letting the audience "see what he sees".
2. What are the key characteristics of the lyrical film (the first example of which was Anticipation of the Night).
3. Which filmmaker was highly influential on Brakhage’s move to lyrical film in terms of film style, and why?
Joseph Cornell was highly influential on Brackhage’s lyrical films because he was the one who first forced Brakhage to make a film without any skeletal drama and without a person as the main subject.
4. What does Sitney mean by "hard" and "soft" montage? What examples of each does he give from Anticipation of the Night? {Tricky question; read the entire passage very carefully.]
Hard montage being the juxtaposition of two completely different ideals such as day and night, while soft montage eases the viewer into the juxtapositions by creating a sort of pattern with camera movements or colors which ease the viewer into the next juxtaposition and makes it less jarring.
There is hard montage by juxtaposing children at a carnival with shots of a moon, and soft cutting with the colors of sleeping children and temple scenes with blues and yellows, moving into shots of exotic animals and more shots of the same things, but with color changes.
5. What are the characteristics of vision according to Brakhage’s revival of the Romantic dialectics of sight and imagination? [I’m not asking here about film style, I’m asking about Brakhage’s views about vision.]
He talks about how we are trained to look at things in a certain way, and he wants to try and capture the “untrained eye” and what it might see, the colors, the way it is framed, etc.
Sitney, “Major Mythopoeia”
6. Why does Sitney argue, “It was Brakhage, of all the major American avant-garde filmmakers, who first embraced the formal directives and verbal aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism.”
By covering the surface of the film with paint and scratched, he eliminated the “perfect picture” that film provides, and garnered a more expressionistic view of what was filmed.
7. What archetypes are significant motifs in Dog Star Man, and which writers in what movement are associated with these four states of existence?
Innocence, experience, rationalism, and imagination. This is associated with William Blake and the romantics.
Sitney, "The Potted Psalm"
[This is an addition to the syllabus. After reading the introductory paragraphs, focus on the discussions of The Cage and Entr'acte (p. 47-54 and The Lead Shoes (p. 68-70).]
8. According to Sitney, what stylistic techniques are used to mark perspective and subjectivity in The Cage, and why is this an important development in the American avant-garde film?
The distorted imagery of the film represents that of the perspective of “the eye” He uses other new techniques such as a spinning camera intercut with flying furniture to subvert our gravitational orientation. This is important to American avant-garde film because he breaks new ground, uses radical techniques to demonstrate Romantic ideals, something that didn’t really come about until much later.
9. For Sitney, what are the key similarities and differences between Entr'acte and The Cage?
Entr’acte is more of a satire than The Cage, but they both draw inspiration from slapstick comedy.
10. How does Peterson synthesize the seemingly incongruent suggestions of his Workshop 20 students into The Lead Shoes?
He turned their ideas into two “ballads” which become irrational and disjunctive after a period of time, and weave them together.
11. Compare your response to The Lead Shoes with the descriptions by Sitney and Parker Tyler.
I correctly assumed that the hopscotch represented something to do with the woman, but instead of a balancing act (as Sitney suggests) I felt it represented a sort of cyclical notion of doing a lot but not getting anywhere. I failed to get the Cain and Abel reference, as well as the birth/death of the scuba diver.
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Lead Shoes Response
As I watched this film, I sort of got a little bit of a 'Momento' vibe about it. Whether or not the events were playing out in reverse order, that is how I came to view the film, and to me it seemed that the old school scuba suit guy had died, and that is why the woman was so freaked out about everything in the beginning. However, I can see how it could be read that in the end, all of the woman's work dragging the man around actually saves his life. Either one of those, I have no idea which one (if any) might be right.
Sidney certainly follows along the American lines of having the film rooted more in one person's experience -- that of the woman -- instead of the European route of surrealism which takes the individual out of it and gives more of an overall experience.
I saw the hopscotch sequences to somewhat relate to what the woman was going through, in that she is pretty much doing the same thing over and over (dragging the scuba guy all over the place) and not really getting anywhere.
Sidney certainly follows along the American lines of having the film rooted more in one person's experience -- that of the woman -- instead of the European route of surrealism which takes the individual out of it and gives more of an overall experience.
I saw the hopscotch sequences to somewhat relate to what the woman was going through, in that she is pretty much doing the same thing over and over (dragging the scuba guy all over the place) and not really getting anywhere.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
January 25 reading response questions
Sitney, “Ritual and Nature”
1. What are some characteristics of the American psychodrama in the 1940s?
Dreams, ritual, dance, sexual metaphor, a quest for sexual identity.
2. What does Sitney mean by an “imagist” structure replacing narrative structure in Choreography for the Camera?
The imagist structure is the vertical structure we talked about in class. It is
expanding on a single moment vertically instead of horizontally, where the
horizontal movement would be a normal narrative structure.
3. According to Sitney, Ritual in Transfigured Time represents a transition between the psychodrama and what kind of film?
Mythopoeic
4. Respond briefly to Sitney’s reading of Ritual in Transfigured Time (27-28); Is his interpretation compatible with your experience of the film?
Because we only viewed this film once, I suppose I never really understood the
relationship between “the widow” and her pursuer throughout the film. I feel like reading this description of the film helped me to better understand it, by putting it concretely into three parts and explaining the relationships within the film.
Sitney, “The Magus”
5. Paraphrase the paragraph on p. 90 that begins “The filmic dream constituted…” in your own words.
This paragraph talks about the idea of a dream sequence in these films can be
used to call attention to the medium, or have it act reflexively. It allows the
filmmaker to express what they think without consequences because in the end, it was just a dream.
6. According to Sitney, what is the ultimate result at the end of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome?
Everyone in the film are subsumed in the Magus’ power and glory and become
divine through the Magus.
Scott MacDonald, “Cinema 16: Introduction”
7. What were some general tendencies in the programming at Cinema 16, and how were films arranged within individual programs?
Cinema 16 generally liked to show avant-garde films as well as political films that were turned away from major theaters due to censorship restrictions. However, the most popular form was that of the documentary, scientific, or educational film. Films that ‘educated’ the audience were chosen instead of ones that just simply entertained. They also expressed individual personal expression.
The films were arranged within individual programs by Vogel in an Eisensteinian or ‘dialectical’ manner so that the way each film was juxtaposed with the one before or after it forced the audience to think.
8. What kinds of venues rented Kenneth Anger’s Fireworks?
Universities and Film Societies (Wilmington Film Society!) as well as a few individuals. However, there were some outliers, like the U.S. Naval Hospital…interesting.
9. What impact did Cinema 16 have on New York City film culture?
Vogel helped to co-found the New York Film Festival. Also, those who attended Cinema 16 saw the films that were being made, and that they had a place to be seen, so many filmmakers in New York began to create and experiment with new and abstract ideas with film.
Hans Richter, “A History of the Avantgarde”
10. What conditions in Europe made the avant-garde film movement possible after World War I?
Political and economic unrest which caused new ideas to be accepted and desired.
The opposition against conventional film, and the desire for something new and ‘un-canned’. The artistic climate of Europe helped avant-garde to flourish – the different movements in other art forms (Cubism, expressionism, Dadaism, abstract) helped fuel the same for cinema.
The influence of new technique and new art on the public due to the growth of mechanical and energetical things that people realized were not only rational, but provided comfort and beauty to life.
11. If the goal of Impressionist art is “Nature Interpreted by Temperament,” what are the goals of abstract art?
The goals of abstract art are to ‘overcome pure individualistic emotional expression and to find instead the way for the expression of universal feeling… [an] elimination of the uncontrolled, creation of norms, discipline and control of the whole.’
1. What are some characteristics of the American psychodrama in the 1940s?
Dreams, ritual, dance, sexual metaphor, a quest for sexual identity.
2. What does Sitney mean by an “imagist” structure replacing narrative structure in Choreography for the Camera?
The imagist structure is the vertical structure we talked about in class. It is
expanding on a single moment vertically instead of horizontally, where the
horizontal movement would be a normal narrative structure.
3. According to Sitney, Ritual in Transfigured Time represents a transition between the psychodrama and what kind of film?
Mythopoeic
4. Respond briefly to Sitney’s reading of Ritual in Transfigured Time (27-28); Is his interpretation compatible with your experience of the film?
Because we only viewed this film once, I suppose I never really understood the
relationship between “the widow” and her pursuer throughout the film. I feel like reading this description of the film helped me to better understand it, by putting it concretely into three parts and explaining the relationships within the film.
Sitney, “The Magus”
5. Paraphrase the paragraph on p. 90 that begins “The filmic dream constituted…” in your own words.
This paragraph talks about the idea of a dream sequence in these films can be
used to call attention to the medium, or have it act reflexively. It allows the
filmmaker to express what they think without consequences because in the end, it was just a dream.
6. According to Sitney, what is the ultimate result at the end of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome?
Everyone in the film are subsumed in the Magus’ power and glory and become
divine through the Magus.
Scott MacDonald, “Cinema 16: Introduction”
7. What were some general tendencies in the programming at Cinema 16, and how were films arranged within individual programs?
Cinema 16 generally liked to show avant-garde films as well as political films that were turned away from major theaters due to censorship restrictions. However, the most popular form was that of the documentary, scientific, or educational film. Films that ‘educated’ the audience were chosen instead of ones that just simply entertained. They also expressed individual personal expression.
The films were arranged within individual programs by Vogel in an Eisensteinian or ‘dialectical’ manner so that the way each film was juxtaposed with the one before or after it forced the audience to think.
8. What kinds of venues rented Kenneth Anger’s Fireworks?
Universities and Film Societies (Wilmington Film Society!) as well as a few individuals. However, there were some outliers, like the U.S. Naval Hospital…interesting.
9. What impact did Cinema 16 have on New York City film culture?
Vogel helped to co-found the New York Film Festival. Also, those who attended Cinema 16 saw the films that were being made, and that they had a place to be seen, so many filmmakers in New York began to create and experiment with new and abstract ideas with film.
Hans Richter, “A History of the Avantgarde”
10. What conditions in Europe made the avant-garde film movement possible after World War I?
Political and economic unrest which caused new ideas to be accepted and desired.
The opposition against conventional film, and the desire for something new and ‘un-canned’. The artistic climate of Europe helped avant-garde to flourish – the different movements in other art forms (Cubism, expressionism, Dadaism, abstract) helped fuel the same for cinema.
The influence of new technique and new art on the public due to the growth of mechanical and energetical things that people realized were not only rational, but provided comfort and beauty to life.
11. If the goal of Impressionist art is “Nature Interpreted by Temperament,” what are the goals of abstract art?
The goals of abstract art are to ‘overcome pure individualistic emotional expression and to find instead the way for the expression of universal feeling… [an] elimination of the uncontrolled, creation of norms, discipline and control of the whole.’
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome
The thing I noticed most when we watched Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome in class was that this was the first film we have watched in color. That being said, it totally took advantage of the color medium. The brightness and vividness of the film helps to elicit emotion. Everything seems so much more alive, bizarre, and ritualistic, something that I do not believe would have come across as clearly or as powerfully in a black and white film.
I also found it interesting that there was no verbal communication between anyone in the film. They all seem to be preparing for this ritualistic act together, and they interact with each other, but not verbally. Everything is done visually. I can see this as a tribute or loyalty to the film medium, letting the camera and all that it is capable of doing do the talking for them.
Also, this was the longest of all of the films that we watched. At first I was a little annoyed at the running time, but as I took it in and relaxed I was able to better appreciate things, and just let the images wash over me. Many images were repeated which gave me a second, third, and fourth look at things and better try to get something out of it. I’m not quite sure I got “the point” even with that, but maybe I’m not supposed to. I feel more research and viewings would be necessary.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)