response: 1/25

Sitney, “Ritual and Nature”

1. What are some characteristics of the American psychodrama in the 1940s?
A passive protagonist struggles with internal conflicts projected on an external world. The authors of the film also occupy the lead roles. The subjects of the film represent the filmmaker’s minds, and usually embark on a quest for identity.

2. What does Sitney mean by an “imagist” structure replacing narrative structure in Choreography for the Camera?
Instead having a linear structure Choreography for the Camera takes a gesture, isolates it, and then uses it as a complete film form.

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

4. Respond briefly to Sitney’s reading of Ritual in Transfigured Time (27-28); Is his interpretation compatible with your experience of the film?
Obviously his interpretation is more detailed since I only saw the film once and was inundated with all this new information on the avant garde movement. I was still trying to create (force) a linear plot on the film and in doing so I missed out on the aspects Sitney brings up. I didn’t, and still don’t quite understand the mythological aspects of the film, but I do see the transformation from Meshes to Ritual.

Sitney, “The Magus”

5. Paraphrase the paragraph on p. 90 that begins “The filmic dream constituted…” in your own words.
What the camera sees is equivalent to what and how the filmmaker and subject (synonymous) view the object in the cameras path.

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

Whatever divinity the others obtain comes through the Magus. The mythic characters inside the Magus combine to turn the Magus into a god.

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?
Vogel chose to exhibit a variety of films that challenged conventional Hollywood. He would choose types of films the emphasized individuality- such as documentary and avant garde. Usually he would put specifically films in a package that would relate to each other, creating a conversation that would give context to the films as well as new meaning.

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

The venues included mostly colleges and film societies, as well as other Venues and individuals that presented alternative cinema.

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

More people began to go to Cinema 16, which prompted a rise in Art House theatres, alternative T.V. programming, film courses taught at universities, as well as more alternative filmmakers.

Hans Richter, “A History of the Avantgarde”

10. What conditions in Europe made the avant-garde film movement possible after World War I?
The conditions were political and economic unrest, opposition against conventional film routine, and the artistic climate in Europe.

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.