Porch Glider. 1969. Directed by James Herbert.

(5/20/00-5/21/00)

Porch Glider draws on the power of pornography. There is something riveting about the attraction of two attractive young people of different sexes. Herbert exploits that, frankly. It is what keeps Porch Glider from being just another boring art film, well-made though it is.

This film does have a vivid sense of place. I remember the lightbulb hanging over the porch glider, the insects flying about. These are striking images of place, captured by a painter, which add a lot. The atmosphere is palpable. And I think that the atmosphere is intensified by the silence. It enhances a sense that we are looking while at the same time locked out.

There are other elements which suggest a story which is fractured. We see a naked child, a group of young people bathing or showering together. There are shots of an interior, a bedroom. A lot of this just seems extraneous to me, but I can't imagine what could have replaced it. I get the feeling that the film is structured to suggest impressions from someone (the filmmaker's?) memory. But it doesn't engage me.

There was at least one very nice shot through a spinning bicycle wheel. I didn't find the scene of naked young people bathing as inhteresting as the scenes of the young couple.

I liked this film better than I have on other occasions when I have seen it.