elag <elag@cloud9.net> wrote in message news:<3F019F19.3FEF308A@cloud9.net>...
> Parry wrote:
> > [snip McLaren stuff]
> > > > I don't know how much he's appreciated, though. Seems
> > > > all anybody wants to see nowadays is Michael Snow.
> > >
> > > Heh, I've actually seen several. I like them, but he does go on doesn't he?
> >
> > I've never actually seen one. But I've read about them, and wonder if
> > that isn't just as good.
>
> Maybe almost as good as they are high concept pieces. Once you get the
> concept you're more than halfway to experimental film nirvana.
>
> > For instance, as I recall one film was made
> > by strapping the camera to a self-operated contraption and letting it
> > spin around.
>
> I believe that would be "<->" aka "Back and Forth".
>
> > As an idea it's intriguing, as a viewing experience maybe not.
>
> It's not exactly entertainment in the Hollywood sense, but I do find
> experiments entertaining.
>
> These experiments can get tedious after a bit even for a masochistic
> experimental type such as myself but I think the experience is
> worthwhile. If you get a little bored you can always take a refreshing catnap.
>
> You might even like a film like "Wavelength" if you can stay awake, but
> "<->" may give you a spell of vertigo. Imagine-a film which causes vertigo...
"Wavelength" is something of a murder story, isn't it? I'd be curious
to see how the narrative emerges in this film. To go off on a bit of a
tangent, I'm recalling a short story by J.G. Ballard which was
designed to look like the index of a book. As you read the index, the
bits of information begin to connect and gain significance, and in
this way its narrative emerges. That's the sort of experience one may
have in a dream, where a innocuous activity like reading a book's
index evolves into something larger and revealing. I think any film
with narrative has the potential to connect to dreams and hope that
watching "Wavelength" would be a similar experience.
> > Anyway my impression is that Snow is avant-garde, whereas McLaren
> > had an explicit affinity with surrealism, though discussion of his
> > works often revolves around his technical innovations.
>
> Labels, labels... One of my professors once said that "all films are
> experimental" to a degree and that's roughly how I look at it. What is
> the avant garde in advance of?... Theiving Hollywood hacks?... Okay,
> sometimes that's the case, but I bet they won't be copying Snow.
>
> Both of them expanded the Cinema by working their imaginations in
> different ways, and I have learned from both of them. It is true that
> the improvisitory animations of McClaren do have an affinity w/
> Surrealist improvisation. Some of his other work would probably have
> pleased them as well. His sense of humor did drift into "umour"
> ocassionally, I suppose.
I would label "avant garde" a work in which the formal properties of
the medium become the foremost concern. Some of McLaren's later films
are like this -- the ones where straight lines divide and bop around,
or where images of dancers' movements are multiplied with an optical
printer. In these films, technique is everything, and it's the sort of
stuff which allows critics to say his work is "about the unadulterated
joy of movement, colour and shape. They are purely aesthetic." I had
seen these films and was indifferent to McLaren's animations until I
saw some of his earlier work, for instance one in which the animation
is created by gradually altering a single picture frame-by-frame
(rather than drawing a new image for each frame), which was visually
powerful. So now I'm a fan. Later, I heard an interview in which
McLaren equated his work with surrealism, presumably because his
abstract imagery was drawn from the unconscious.
> I'll have to look for some McClaren films at the Library...
Good idea. This discussion has prompted me to sign out an NFB
documentary on McLaren -- probably the same one with the interview I
just mentioned, but I'll watch it again this wekend. It's either that
or "The Hulk."
-- Parry
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