Reading Response 2

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?

Sitney says that technically Reflections on Black is a trance film but extends into structural territory that had not previously been explored. Sitney says that with this film, "Brakhage had begun to transcend the distinction between fantasy and actuality, moving into the cinema of triumphant imagination." The film has the lookings of a trance film: a single protagonist walks through an environment with no apparant antagonist, however the environment is not portrayed in a dreamlike fashion but rather this blind protagonist walks in reality but "sees" visions in an imaginative way, hence the foundations for the lyrical film.

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

The film takes the first person perspective so that we experience the world through the protagonist's eyes. The primary focus of the lyrical film is the intensity of the protagonist's vision. It also recognizes the flatness and whiteness of the film screen and rejects its use as an window into illusion.

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

Joseph Cornell and Marie Menken were two lyrical filmmakers that influenced Brakhage's move to the lyrical form. Menken made Visual Variations on Noguchi and Notebook, both filmed in the lyrical mode. Visual Variations on Noguchi examined an artist's sculptures and was filmed in a lyrical fashion, using the perspective of the filmmaker with the camera gliding gracefully around various sculptures. Notebook employed rhythm in camera movement, a stylistic trait undoubtedly picked up by Brakhage.

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.]

A soft montage gives the viewer a subtle preview of what is to come, in the form of colors, thematic unity, and rhythm in editing. A hard montage involves a clash of images, such as day and night. The hard montage is sudden and apparent, perhaps calling attention to itself and the images it produces.

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.]

Brakhage became consumed by the sense of sight. He believes that most people have become so familiar with their sight that they no longer use it for spiritual means, like the "untutored eye" of an infant as he crawls across a field of grass. BRakhage also favored noticing the "mundane" in life, attributing to it the meaningful existence of everyday life. Brakhage says there are multiple types of vision: open eye vision, hypnagogic (closed eye) vision, and peripheral vision (out of focus, dreamlike). In much of Brakhage's later films he explores his philosophy on vision.

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.”

Brakhage pioneered abstract expressionism in film as a means to express his obsession with vision and to convey a sense of spiritual connectedness between man and nature. In Dog Star Man, Brakhage uses images of a man climbing a mountain and images of the seasons to show man and nature, and uses sexual imagery to convey the notion of connectedness. Not to be left unmentioned are Brakhage's later fingerpainted works which very closely resemble abstract expressionism.

7. What archetypes are significant motifs in Dog Star Man, and which writers in what movement are associated with these four states of existence?

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?

Firstly, Peterson employed "every camera trick in the book, and some that aren't." He used slow motion, normal motion, fast motion, superimpositions, etc. Also, Peterson put weirdly textured transparent objects in front of the lens to lend the viewer subjectivity and perspective. Peterson also used lens tricks and mirrors to achieve this effect.

9. For Sitney, what are the key similarities and differences between Entr'acte and The Cage?

For one, both films exhibit an abstract slapstick humor. Additionally, both films are fragmentary with no links between the many scenes. Their humors differ in that Entr'act is a satirically funny film, meant to comically misrepresent the theater and its patrons, wheres the other films are simply abstract.

10. How does Peterson synthesize the seemingly incongruent suggestions of his Workshop 20 students into The Lead Shoes?

Peterson employed the ballad suggestion, I believe, by having the soundtrack to the film be one continuous blues ballad. The diving suit was incorporated completely, and was used in conjunction with the hamster suggestion, when the lady pulls three rats out of the diving suit helmet in the film.

11. Compare your response to The Lead Shoes with the descriptions by Sitney and Parker Tyler.

My response was based completely on my distaste for the film. Sitney spends a lot of time recounting the images of the film in an attempt to actually try to understand it. I think that I should pay more attention to the images of the films this semester and try to form associations between them. If I can't I should at least remember exactly what happens in each film in order to give me some sort of foundation on which to (if not understand) appreciate the technical complexity of each piece.

Response to the Lead Shoes

I like to believe that I am pretty open-minded when experiencing new kinds of films. I really enjoyed the Maya Deren content we saw in class the first week, and I also enjoyed Man Ray's L'Etoile de Mer, but the CalArts films we saw by Sidney Peterson were probably a worse experience for me then even Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. There is nothing in the Lead Shoes, be it iconic images, cultural images, dream images, good cinematography, good acting, anything, that distinguishes this film as a surrealist expose rather than someone who was given a camera and recorded people performing what is perhaps the most unimaginative, banal things someone could use a camera to record with. Then the filmmaker edited everything he shot together and called it surrealism. There is no production value, no concept, nothing in this film that makes history worthy to remember other than how to frustrate and bore the heck out of a film class. The only thing Peterson did right was expose his film correctly, and that's where it ends. Perhaps the only cool "surrealist" moment I caught from the film was near the end with the voices wailing "what's for breakfast?" over and over again at the end, because that is probably something my mind would produce in my dreams right before I woke up.

Reading Response 1

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

The filmmakers often played the lead role, and their films strove to explore the structure of dreams and/or the mind. There is usually only one human character and he or she confronts their environment and there are usually no human antagonists. If there is, there is only one. The films were made in 16mm.

2. What does Sitney mean by an “imagist” structure replacing narrative structure in Choreography for the Camera?

The film images together create a unified emotional response or abstract theme/idea within the viewer as opposed to being concerned with a narrative account of events.

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

The film is an extension of the trance film which Sitney dubs the "architectonic" film which developed in the 1960s towards myth and ritual.

4. Respond briefly to Sitney’s reading of Ritual in Transfigured Time (27-28); Is his interpretation compatible with your experience of the film?

Sitney mostly recounts the events in the film, gives each character an identity, muses for a few lines on the role of the editing and camerawork in the film, and equates her style to a ritual of sorts. When I saw the film, I didn't see it so much as a ritual, rather I saw it as a dream/trance film. I associate ritual with secret group performances and chanting and repetition (however there is plenty of repeition in this film). In this film I saw a protagonist who expresses emotions of fear and desire as she drifts through a heady dream.

Sitney, “The Magus”

5. Paraphrase the paragraph on p. 90 that begins “The filmic dream constituted…” in your own words.

The "filmic dream" for Anger and Deren is quite similar to each other. The self is split in two: one is behind the camera and sees what the camera sees, and the other self is projected visually for the viewer to see physically. The "viewer" or "dreamer" is BOTH the subject and the object of the dream/film. The film/dream and the images that populate it is a visual metaphor for the processes of the meaning-seeking mind.

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

Firstly, no real, tangible results from the film can be obtained for the viewer without first reading Anger's own program notes. Sitney says the the essential tension of the film is resolved when the Magus unifies its several avatars into a unified, redeemed man. The characters are most themselves when they assume the aura of the gods.

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?

The programs at Cinema 16 had a wide range of types of films. The programmers favored diversity in genre in order to deliver a true alternative filmgoing experience for its patrons.

8. What kinds of venues rented Kenneth Anger’s Fireworks?

Microcinemas and art theaters dedicated to exploring the limits of film as an artistic medium.

9. What impact did Cinema 16 have on New York City film culture?

It gave New York cinephiles an avenue for organization and artistic erudition and helped establish New York as a filmmaking and critical studying hub for film.

Hans Richter, “A History of the Avantgarde”

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

The availability of equipment helped democratize the production of films. Additionally, the European Avant-Garde of the early twentieth century was in some ways a reaction to the logical, rational mindset that produced the horrible war. The avantgardists strove to deconstruct rationality with films that offered their own unique logics not grounded in everyday life.

11. If the goal of Impressionist art is “Nature Interpreted by Temperament,” what are the goals of abstract art?

To stimulate the recesses of the mind, the nonactive part. to come to the fore of consciousness and to use it to experience and appreciate the art. Abstract art does not want to recreate reality as we perceive it from day to day. Rather it is more representational and suggestive in color and form. Additionally, abstract art is unique to painting, drawing, and everything in between. The equivalent to abstract art in film is avantgarde.

Response to Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome

While watching this film, I felt an agonizing awareness of time as I kept checking the clock to track how much longer the film would run. My initial impressions of the film were that it was...terrible. I attribute this to my lack of understanding of the film's content. We learned in class that Anger based much of his work off of the occult writings of Aleister Crowley, of which I and most people are unfamiliar. In the beginning I tried to figure out which ritualistic tradition the film refers to; but it soon became apparant that the film did not refer to any specific ritual at all. I found the content to be ridiculous and boring, except for some parts at the end with the one lady whose chest was half uncovered and the following superimpositions of fire. That's the thing though, I could never tell what exactly was going on and who was being summoned. Sometimes it's okay to not know completely what is going on, but you need to be left with something to go by, like in Maya Deren's films (which I really enjoyed). Sometimes films that are initially laborious to watch can plant thoughts and ideas inside your head that ferment over time. I gave this film that benefit but unfortunately, whatever was planted in my head by this film was scortch-sanitized from it immediately.