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.