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.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
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)