Kenneth Anger & Brakhage

Kenneth Anger was quite an artistic prodigy to have produced such a vivid film as "Fireworks" while being only 17.  The gay iconography he wanted to let loose was very bold and extremely courageous for its time of release.  Homosexuality and sado-masochism are surely topics not taken lightly by society in 1947, especially from someone so young.  He was apparently brought up on charges due to this film being considered obscene, but thankfully the courts came to its senses and he was released.

The film, Eaux d'artifice was interesting to me because of the relationship between a very elaborately dressed woman fitted in 18th century wardrobe and the mirror images bestowed from the flowing water.  Some fountains resembled her fan, and certain spouts could represent her huge, powdered wig.  The continuous flowing of both the water, and running of the woman also were obviously in common to me.

 

Stan Brakhage's films that we watched had me a bit confused.  He mentioned that he wasn't trying to be abstract in his message, yet Moth Light and Garden of Earthly Delights definitely seemed to have little to say.  Although very beautiful visually.

Here is a part of the original painting titled "Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch mentioned in class:

Brakhage used that name for one of his films in which he taped pieces of plants he found and arranged them in patterns.  Like I said, I don't know what kind of meaning he really has with that idea other than being abstract.  Possibly he just wanted to show beauty without any kind of pretense or label.

Maya is Deren Good

I thought Maya Deren's films were pretty groundbreaking.  Not only because of her unique camera angles, scripting, or acting...but mainly thanks to her just being a woman.  It must have been very difficult to gather enough respect to be able to portray her unconventional vision in a world where men called most of the shots.

"At Land" was my favorite film of the 3 we watched.  Maya was born from the waves, which was shot in reverse, and then proceeded to maneuver from scene to eclectic scene.  She climbed up rocks on the beach only to end up crawling through a forest...which then led to her interrupting a dinner party as she slunk over  dinner plates.

Deren seemed to have many different roles that interchanged with each other that may have each represented something in her personality.  One Maya kept picking up rocks and dropping them as her hands got full.  That may have been a message of never being satisfied.  Another Maya was spectating a chess game while beaming a smile and seemingly inciting joy in the players.  Could that have been to show the need for love and affection?  The most peculiar Maya was where she was running with the chess piece.  I assumed this role could describe the fears that everyone has deep down, and always running from.

It was a very vibrant film that really broke a lot of ground.  Both in message and gender.

Propaganda

This week was a run of films that I'm sure everyone has heard about, but probably few have seen in their entirety.  Most people have seen the signs and maybe some clips of good old fashioned, enthusiastic Propaganda.  Of course Propaganda is an ugly word used mostly in political settings.

It usually brings to my mind Nazis...

Or Communists...

Mainly just because of the bold nature that governments use basically just tricks to woo followers.

Watching "Triumph of the Will"...I immediately could picture that film being used by Nazi's.  Hitler seeming godlike in the beginning, floating through the clouds.  White, Aryan boys frolicking around in Hitler Summer Camp.  Not a frown or minority person to be seen.  Pretty sad.  The footage itself was pretty well put together though, I must admit.  The mass crowds must have been a least a little difficult to handle.

What was more frightening to watch that day for me, however, was that our own wholesome U.S.of A. contributed it's own brand of movie theatre brainwashing called "Why We Fight."  It's just kind of eye opening that even the "good guys" still need to resort to these types of tactics for positive morale.  That is just the way it is.  But, like I said earlier, Propaganda seems like such a negative word.  I think we should just call our material "Positive Re-enforcement"

Documentaries

Being that "Nanook" is considered the first feature length documentary, it definitely has it's place in this course.  I found it interesting that this film was actually partially staged...meaning the director, Robert Flaherty set up shots on purpose instead of everything flying by the seat of its pants, so to speak.  Kind of crazy, but its seems like a precursor to what we know as reality tv these days, doesn't it?

Flav you got nothing on Nanook!

Regardless of shots being manufactured for film, it was still a very groundbreaking medium for Flaherty to pursue.

The man with a movie camera was a dialogue-less adventure with a man just walking around the Soviet Union with a camera filming random things.  The one aspect I found fascinating in this film was the shot at the Nazis.  One of the targets at the end of the movie was a person wearing a nazi cross hat.  Kind of intriguing considering both country's future in the history books together.