Reading Response 3: Due February 8 @ Noon

1. Post your response to Brakhage's Prelude: Dog Star Man.
I really, almost violently, disliked Prelude: Dog Star Man. Perhaps its because I reject Brakhages mission to find the "untrained eye". I like the supposed "story" of the film, but while seeing the film I couldn't connect any of the dots. I liked the intro with the black screen, then it gradually becomes red reproducing the sunlight shining through your eyelids. In theory I am a big fan of the soft editing too. Which you would think would make the film easier to watch. I just thought it was too long, and way to fast. To keep my head from exploding I had to shut my mind out, and let the visuals work on me. I think its easy to see that Brakhage worked really hard to achieve the look he was going for in this film, but I just do not like it.

Sitney, “Apocalypses and Picaresques”

2. Why does Sitney argue that synechdoche plays a major role in Christopher Maclaine’s The End, and how does the film anticipate later achievements by Brakhage and the mythopoeic form? He uses metaphor throughout the film. The images have a direct and indirect relationship to the narrative, similar the film scratching of the blind mans eyes in Brakhages Reflections of the Black.

3. What are some similarities and differences between the apocalyptic visions of Christopher Maclaine and Bruce Conner? Both Maclaine and Conner use metaphor to create distance from the material, as well as a doom and gloom mood. Howerver, Conner relies on humor, eroticism, and violence to do this.

4. Why are the films of Ron Rice (The Flower Thief) and Robert Nelson (The Great Blondino) examples of Beat sensibility and what Sitney calls the picaresque form? It portrays the absurd, anarchistic, often infantile adventures of an innocent hero.


Bruce Jenkins, “Fluxfilms in Three False Starts.”

5. How and why were the “anti-art” Fluxfilms reactions against the avant-garde films of Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger. [Hint: Think about Fluxus in relation to earlier anti-art such as Dada, and Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain."] "Anti-Art" Fluxfilms relied on humor to attack the hierchies of cinema.

6. What does Jenkins mean by the democratization of production in the Fluxfilms? That the medium itself was easy and appropriate to replicate, and should be cheap to get copies of the art.

7. Why does Jenkins argue that Nam June Paik’s Zen for Film “fixed the material and aesthetic terms for the production of subsequent Fluxfilms”? How does it use the materials of the cinema? What kind of aesthetic experience does it offer?
It shows a black leader, a clear leader, sound and silence, to offer a zen like meditation on film form.

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?
The film uses techniques and materials that reflect on filmimaking as a form.
2. What are the key characteristics of the lyrical film (the first example of which was Anticipation of the Night).
Filmmaker behind the camera; as the 1st person protaganist. The film consists of movement that is percieved to be the visions of the filmmaker. Brings to light the limitations of the screen.
3. Which filmmaker was highly influential on Brakhage’s move to lyrical film in terms of film style, and why?
Marie Menken for her emphasis on rhythmic camera movements, as well as her direct influence on the image.
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 is a collision of shots; soft is a “preview” shot cut with camera movement or a drift in colors.
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.] We’ve been taught to see things a certain way, but that’s not actually how we see them. The Romantic dialects were all about focusing on the argument of which is truer reality, or our perception of reality.

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.”

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

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?
Use of Radical lens techniques as metaphors for perception and consciousness that led to future cinematic ideas regarding perspective.
9. For Sitney, what are the key similarities and differences between Entr'acte and The Cage?
They both use camera distortion, and slapstick comedy but Entr’acte has more emphasis with snubbing their nose at the beourgoius(In the Dada tradition), while The Cage seems to be focusing more on the Artform.
10. How does Peterson synthesize the seemingly incongruent suggestions of his Workshop 20 students into The Lead Shoes?
Carried the editing principle into conception of the film.
11. Compare your response to The Lead Shoes with the descriptions by Sitney and Parker Tyler.
Their responses seem to be focused on the themes of the piece, where as mine was on a different level. I didn’t try to figure the story out, rather I just focused on how the shots were juxtaposed. I guess I assumed that the meanings behind the juxtaposition were convenient, and the real meat of the film is its sampling of what editing can offer.

The lead shoes

I really actually liked The Lead Shoes, by Sidney Peterson, though I must admit I was glad when it ended. The Lead shoes was definitely in the same category as the surrealist un chien andelou, although there are definitely some differences. There are two separate storylines going on. The first a girl plays hopscotch on the street, and second a woman tends to a scuba man. The stories are juxtaposed to each other, and both at times run in reverse. The hopscotch kind of works as a metaphor for film, in that the squares can be traversed forward or backward. I feel that the dream logic worked better on me here than in Un Chien Andelou only because it feels less aggressive. For instance, I especially like the connection of the girls chalk marking the sidewalk in reverse to the scuba divers oxygen hose (at least I think that’s what it is); it’s a simple graphic match, but follows a dream logic; in that two times, and subject matters are connected but only barely. However in un Chien Andelou the content seems to be shocking for shocks sake. I can understand why the filmmakers would choose this technique but I think the shocking nature of it is an ineffective way of showing what surrealistic qualities film is capable of. Also adding to why I enjoyed The Lead Shoes, is its slow pace. The pace gives me an opportunity to see the connections, and build some ideas as to what I am seeing. I loved the lens distortion. I often have dreams where part of my vision is blurred. The score was appropriate with both the playfulness of the girl, and the surreal qualities of the woman and the scuba diver. There seemed to be many things going on in the score, which played with the images to bring a sensory overload. Things are firing off, and they aren’t specifically connected to the images but they seem to fit.

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.

For me trying to interpret Kenneth Angers Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome will just end in confusion. I’m not familiar with most of the mythic characters within the film, and can only begin to understand the film’s point. That’s not to say I wasn’t entertained with Pleasure Dome’s trippy editing techniques, its provocative content and use of fantastical color. I can’t help but think the film is about mind altering substances- whether it be drugs, or alcohol- and their affects on identity and being. Without the knowledge of Alexander Crowley’s work of which this film is apparently based, I don’t think I could come to any other conclusion. To put it mildly, the visuals of this film are bizarre. The colors are plucked some kind of LSD induced dream. They are bright, neon, and I could never tell where they were coming from. The backgrounds of the film are mostly black sheets, although sometimes their dreamy landscapes. My main problem with the film was its running time. Toward the end, the characters seemed to be repeating actions, which made for a weird viewing experience. The visuals and editing were always in flux, but it seemed that the plot was going nowhere.