USA, 17 min
Archive for the ‘short’ Category
Eclipse of the Sun Virgin (George Kuchar, 1967)
July 15, 2012N-Zone (Arthur Lipsett, 1970)
March 28, 2011
45 min
Arthur Lipsett pieces together his visions of this fragmented world from odds and ends, even leftovers, from other people’s photography and sound recording. By juxtaposing his snippets of “found film” with snatches of comment or dialogue echoing the banality of human communication, Lipsett shows the emptiness of much of what we say or do. N-Zone is one man’s surrealist sampler of the human condition.
Three Bewildered People in the Night (Gregg Araki, 1987)
June 10, 2010USA, 92 min
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916)
May 17, 2010
Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
February 15, 2010Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) music by Teiji Itō added 1952
Much like Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bête , which came three years after this short, this piece pivoted on the repetition of certain objects. Through the rondo-like succession of imagery, these objects are instilled with emotional significance.
The cinematography by Deren’s Czech husband Alexander Hammid is skillful and effectively disorienting. It is all the more impressive when the limited budget the pair was working on is taken into account. His focus and composition were excellent, and his perspective was obviously sensitive to Deren’s vision.
9 years after the filming, Teiji Itō produced a minimal score for the piece at the age of 17. Through the use of semitones between what sounds like a human voice humming and a bowed bass note, the pressure of the unresolved diminished unison adds great tension to the short. The semitones paired with the staccato percussion speaks as much of Itō’s sensitivity to Deren’s vision as the cinematography spoke of Hammid’s. It is no wonder that Deren and Itō were later married.
Side note: Looks like Kate Bush much?
http://enterthephotobooth.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/meshes-of-the-afternoon/
Silent Snow, Secret Snow (1966)
January 19, 2010
Reconstruction 0: The Reverse of Deja-Vu on Television With Slight Delay (David Blair, 1986)
January 14, 2010Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? (Miguel Arteta, 2005)
January 10, 2010Tater Tomater (Philip Morrison, 1990)
January 9, 2010Le Toy Shop (Chuck Vincent, 1980)
December 19, 2009USA, 13 min
Palindrome (Hollis Frampton, 1969)
December 19, 2009USA, 22 min
Tokyo Days (Chris Marker, 1988)
November 10, 20091988, 20:15 min, color, sound
This idiosyncratic view of Tokyo begins with a live mannequin in a store window and French actress Arielle Dombasle chatting with Marker as they wander around Tokyo. After Dombasle departs, the tape continues with footage from the Tokyo subway and an indoor market. Marker punctuates the tape throughout with playful visual and sound edits.
In Japanese and French.
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watch it:
Dancing Outlaw (Jacob Young, 1991)
October 18, 2009
La rivière du hibou (1962)
October 15, 2009
2084 (Chris Marker, 1984)
October 14, 2009
a Wind Rose (Barbara Hanlo, 1996)
October 8, 20099 min
from Not Afraid of Super 8: Films from Studio één (1988 – 2005)
In addition to Scivias she wrote two other major works of visionary writing Liber vitae meritorum (1150-63) (Book of Life’s Merits) and Liber divinorum operum(1163) (“Book of Divine Works”), in which she further expounded on her theology of microcosm and macrocosm-man being the peak of god’s creation, man as a mirror through which the splendor of the macrocosm was reflected. Hildegard also authored Physica and Causae et Curae (1150), both works on natural history and curative powers of various natural objects, which are together known as Liber subtilatum (“The book of subtleties of the Diverse Nature of Things”). These works were uncharacteristic of Hildegard’s writings, including her correspondences, in that they were not presented in a visionary form and don’t contain any references to divine source or revelation. However, like her religious writings they reflected her religious philosophy-that the man was the peak of god’s creation and everything was put in the world for man to use.
Her scientific views were derived from the ancient Greek cosmology of the four elements-fire, air, water, and earth-with their complementary qualities of heat, dryness, moisture, and cold, and the corresponding four humours in the body-choler (yellow bile), blood, phlegm, and melancholy (black bile). Human constitution was based on the preponderance of one or two of the humours. Indeed, we still use words “choleric”, “sanguine”, “phlegmatic” and “melancholy” to describe personalities. Sickness upset the delicate balance of the humours, and only consuming the right plant or animal which had that quality you were missing, could restore the healthy balance to the body. That is why in giving descriptions of plants, trees, birds, animals, stones, Hildegard is mostly concerned in describing that object’s quality and giving its medicinal use. Thus, “Reyan (tansy) is hot and a little damp and is good against all superfluous flowing humours and whoever suffers from catarrh and has a cough, let him eat tansy. It will bind humors so that they do not overflow, and thus will lessen.”
Hildegard’s writings are also unique for their generally positive view of sexual relations and her description of pleasure from the point of view of a woman. They might also contain the first description of the female orgasm.
When a woman is making love with a man, a sense of heat in her brain, which brings with it sensual delight, communicates the taste of that delight during the act and summons forth the emission of the man’s seed. And when the seed has fallen into its place, that vehement heat descending from her brain draws the seed to itself and holds it, and soon the woman’s sexual organs contract, and all the parts that are ready to open up during the time of menstruation now close, in the same way as a strong man can old something enclosed in his fist.
She also wrote that strength of semen determined the sex of the child, while the amount of love and passion determine child’s disposition. The worst case, where the seed is weak and parents feel no love, leads to a bitter daughter.
[] – learn about hildegard von bingen
[] – scivias on google books
[] – fragment found on youtube
Apaches (1977)
September 25, 2009
Desistfilm (Stan Brakhage, 1954)
September 20, 2009USA, 6.5 min
Le Mystère Koumiko (Chris Marker, 1965)
August 29, 2009FR, 54 min
chris marker’s look at japan, the individual, society, the ’64 olympics, humanity… preverberations of sans soleil
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watch it:
Daisy Doodad’s Dial (1914)
August 26, 2009USA, 9 min
