Brakhage films.

(5/27/01)

Films by Stan Brakhage:
Preludes 1-6. 1995; Preludes 7-12. 1996; Preludes 13-18. 1996; Preludes 19-24. 1997; The "b" series. 1995; The Lost Films. 1996; Beautiful Funerals. 1996; Blue Value. 1996; Concrescence. 1996. In collaboration with Phil Solomon; Polite Madness. 1996; Sexual Saga. 1996; The Fur of Home. 1996; Through Wounded Eyes. 1996. In collaboration with Joel Maertling; Two Found Objects of Charles Boultenhouse. 1996. In collaboration with Charles Boultenhouse; Zone Moment. 1996. (Restored from the 1950s.); Cat of the Worm's Green Realm. 1997; Commingled Containers. 1997; Divertimento. 1997; Self Song/Death Song. 1997; Shockingly Hot. 1997; Persian Series 1-5. 1999; Coupling. 1999; Wom and Web Love. 1999; The Dark Tower. 1999; Cloud Chamber. 1999; Moilsome Toilsome. 1999; Stately Mansion Did Decree. 2000; Persians 6-12. 2000; Water for Maya. 2000; Dance. 2000; The God of Day Had Gone Down upon Him. 2000; The Jesus Trilogy and Coda. 2000; The Thread of Occam. 2000.

I regret to say that after a month I remember very little about these films. I found them enjoyable to watch at the time, but I can't even remember most of them.

A great many of these are hand-painted films, although they are more than simply-hand-painted. The original painted strip of film have been manipulated through an optical printer with the aid of a technician. Thus, the hand paintings are superimposed on each other and there are effects such as one of the painted strips being frozen while another layer continues over it.

These films are, in Brakhage's words, "visual music" and are pleasant to experience on that level, although I think they suffer when a lot of them are shown together. The colors are bright and beautiful, however, and like Jackson Pollock, Brakhage manages to squeeze a large variety of effects out of his method. Sometimes the colors appear against a clear ground, but sometimes there seems to be a dark background. These moving paintings cause a visceral response. Fpr ionstance, when there is a lot of dense, congested movement on the screen and it stops--freezes or goes to more openness in the frame--you can feel it in your body.

Brakhage uses even the little marks that accidentally obtrude upon the film's surface. These are what looked to me like specks of dirt--but Brakhage said were hairs--and he used them creatively, causing them to dance across the screen. That was cute as well as aesthetically pleasing.

While these painted films seem like "just" visual music, they do--some at least--have subjects. At least they did to Brakhage. So--we were told--The Jesus Trilogy and Coda really does have something to do with Christianity, even if that significance is lost on a lot of the audience. And I do think that that is a problem with Brakhage's films.

Of the other films, my favorite was The God of Day Had Gone Down upon Him. This fil;m is a beautiful portrait of Vancouver Island. Devoid of a lot of camera movement it has a serenity to it and strikes me as one of Brakhage's most accessible films. He told us that he saw it as a meditation on old age and the growing awarenes of one's mortality that comes with it. I did not mae that association; to me it was simply a beautiful film about a place.

I liked Moilsome Toilsome quite a lot. The film (says Brakhage) shows water and shore from a whale's point of view. It has an infectious giddiness about it and the water and the light are beautifully photographed. It is a fresh, lighthearted film.

Zone Moment--a rediscovered "lost" film--is interesting for bringing back the feel of the 1950s. It's about a woman walking around a park where some boys are playing--or something like that. It seemed very serious in a youthful way. I didn't follow it very well, but I would like to see it again. The fact that it is a preservation copy made from a print probably adds to its flavor of nostalgia.

One of the found objects by Charles Boultenhouse was film of a dancer. I remember that I didn't find that very interesting.