Reading Response #2

1. What conditions in Europe made the avant-garde film movement possible after World War I?

Post-war Europe was prime ground for the evolution of the 1920s avant-garde film movement, due in part to the predominance of political and economical unrest. What with revolutions occurring all over Europe, new, more radical thought was tolerated/encouraged, and with this new freedom the art world flourished. Economically, many areas saw a short rise in prosperity due to inflation, and this could be channeled into filmmaking. The avant-garde film movement also marked a backlash against the old mode of "canned theatre" predominant in the 1900s-1910s, and the avant-garde artists/filmmakers turned to creating films which pursued the form on its own terms. Also, cine-clubs/film societies were established in many countries to support the burgeoning movement at arthouse theatres. The film movement directly reflected what was going on in the world of high art/painting as well, with the popularity of Dadism, Cubism, and other abstract art movements informing the film world, and with many artists [Like Richter himself] who became filmmakers during this period.

2. If the goal of Impressionist art is "Nature Interpreted by Temperament", what are the goals of abstract art?

In abstract art, the artist/filmmaker must seek the "plastic value" of this work, exploring the very form and mode of creation utilised. Abstract art wanted to express universal feeling [as opposed to the artist's own emotional expression of Impressionism] through the use and control of abstract forms understood on an instinctual level.

3. On what grounds does Fischinger argue that "there is nothing of an absolute creative sense" in conventional cinematography? (At least 2 important reasons.)

Fischinger claims that conventional filmmaking is the act of "photographed realism"--by focusing on only the outer, natural realism seen, the popular film denies the idea of relating on a deeper, more personal level to the creative possibilities of filmmaking. Fischinger also denounces popular film as an assembly-line product, with the original vision of the artist getting lost or removed by the many staff of helpers which are required to churn out the consumable finished film; Fischinger states that "the creative artist...always works at his best alone."

4. While Brakhage's Reflections on Black is a trance film, why does Sitney argue that it anticipates the lyrical film?

Reflections on Black is a trance film which anticipates Brakhage's development of the lyrical film in its beginnings of equating the filmmaking process as a personal experience and the filmmaker's search for consciousness within the art and himself, utilising the medium itself, by scratching directly on the film stock, over the blind man's eyes. Connecting the internal landscape of the blind man with the aesthetics created and filmed, Brakhage tries to push the boundaries of the trance film.

5. What are the key characteristics of the lyrical film (the first example of which was Anticipation of the Night.)

The lyrical film is defined as the expression of the filmmaker him/herself as the protagonist of the film, with the artist showing the viewer what he sees; the lyrical film is a very artist-driven mode of filmmaking, in which the filmmaker's personal vision and presence are always at the forefront of the film experience. In the lyrical film, there is no "hero", but simply movement onscreen, which reflects the act of vision which the filmmaker is sharing with the viewer. The use of space in the lyrical film is akin the that of abstract Expressionism, with the depth of field being flattened, and using this to advantage to reflect the properties of the silver screen projecting the film.

6. Which filmmaker was highly influential on Brakhage's move to lyrical film in terms of film style, and why?

Marie Menken informed Brakhage's blossoming lyrical style, especially in her inclusion of herself within fragments of her films, for example her hand creating the act filmed in Raindrops, or reflections of herself behind the camera, incorporating this personal touch in the rhythm of her films. Brakhage pushed this use of the artist's observation of the film being created in his exploration of the lyrical film mode.

(I might answer the rest of the questions after class, once I've revisited some of Brakhage's films, for my own benefit if not for credit!)

Reading Response #1

1. According to Sitney, what are some of the important differences between Meshes of the Afternoon and Un Chien Andalou?


Un Chien Andalou is a landmark example of the 1920s Surrealist movement, while Meshes established the "trance film"/psycho-drama as a major method of avant garde filmmaking in the US at the time. Meshes is a personal journey within the dream realm of Deren's character; Un Chien Andalou, in Sitney's words, “attempts to provide us with a broken, violent, spatially and temporally unstable world, without final reference to a more conventional actuality;" the film uses techniques and imagery which reflect the mechanics and irrationality of dream-logic for its own ends, whereas Meshes "offers an extended view of a mind in which there is a terrible ambivalence between stable actuality and subconscious violence.” Deren's film has a meaning, no matter how obscure, behind its logic--that of the dreaming protagonist's mind. Sitney also terms the difference between the two films as instructive, i.e., Meshes has no metaphors and instead is pregnant with symbolic meaning, while Un Chien Andalou is rife with metaphors. Also, the space within Meshes is "rounded and linear," with most movement taking place within a closed frame, across the screen. In Un Chien Andalou, the space of the film is deep, with movement occuring across the planes as well as vertically and virtually (eg behind doors and between unrelated spaces.)

2. What are some characteristics of the American psychodrama in the 1940s?

The psychodrama or trance film focuses on a journey of self-realisation of the invisible, isolated protagonist, emphasising the self and its inner workings. This protagonist's movements are stylised and symbolic, and s/he cannot interact with fellow characters within the film. The act of watching/seeing is more important than performing actions within the psychodrama. Ultimately, interpretation of trance films is very open.

3. What does Sitney mean by an "imagist" structure replacing narrative structure in Choreography for the Camera?

In Choreography for the Camera, Deren isolates "a single gesture as a complete film form." Focusing a single movement of the dancer across space and time through the use of different matches on action, the film is imagist because it expounds upon this simple gesture, expounding on its aesthetic depth.

4. According to Sitney, Ritual in Transfigured Time represents a transition between psychodrama and what kind of film?

Deren's film Ritual marks the transition between the trance film and the mythopoeic film.

6. Paraphrase the paragraph on p. 90 that begins "The filmic dream constituted..." in your own words.

The "filmic dream" Sitney speaks of stands, for such filmmakers as Anger and Deren, as a way to create a highly personal and subjective film as both main actor in the film and as the creative force behind the lens.

7. According to Sitney, what is the ultimate result at the end of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome?

The end of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, according to Sitney, marks the subsuming of the characters/all gods into the Magus, the ultimate god created by their ritual and combining these separate characteristics into one amalgation of power.

9. What kind of venues rented Kenneth Anger's Fireworks?

Anger's film was rented by such venues as universities, art/film societies, museums, and individuals.

Response: Sidney Peterson's The Cage

Sidney Peterson's film The Cage has an intriguing though sometimes distressing rhythm. The narrative itself, thinking back upon it, is relatively straightforward compared to some of its avant-garde brothers. A young artist with a crazed look about him ends up removing his own eye, and his lady, a doctor, and a few others set about trying to find this offending object as it rolls through San Francisco. Using a quietly absurdist humour, The Cage creates the 'bohemian artist' world, the setting being a shabby apartment in disarray, with the artist painting bread and eating it, or staring into a mirror (both before and after he loses his eye.)

The film emphasizes the act of seeing and unique vision through the use of repetition of shots and imagery (such as the nude woman running down a hall with her back to the camera, and the image of the young man with his head in a birdcage.) This repetition helps to build the rhythm of the film, as does the dream-like quality of the crowds shot walking backwards. My interpretation of these sequences along the streets of San Francisco was that these crowds might represent the backwardness of conventional society. I could be way off, though.

The eyeball's point-of-view shots use distortions of the lens, conveying a feeling of disjunction and overall madness. The point-of-view shots in which the eye crazily spins, revolving the world it sees at a breakneck speed, were a little too much for me and made me feel a bit motion-sick, and I usually have a strong stomach while viewing films with odd camera movements.

Overall, I'd like to see more by Peterson, and my favourite image in the film is the quiet moment when the split-artist wearing his eyepatch ponders his dual reflection in the mirror, and though each face is different, the two actors give off a feeling of satisfied, inevilitable dread, if that makes any sense.