First To Fight Left Coasters

Sidney Peterson's "The Cage" was a pretty sophisticated film in the sense that many camera angles and tricks were used.  The most striking effect was when the lead characters were running backwards, while the crowds of people in the shot were walking normally.  When the film was reversed, it was confusing at first to understand what was happening, but the actors really sold themselves there.  It was also refreshing to have an Avant Garde film with a little humor involved...thanks to an adventurist eyeball hauling ass everywhere.

We noticed as a class many different scenes and shots that could be related to previous films.  The moments I found the most compelling related to the eyeball and the naked woman.  When the man first loses the eyeball on the ground, you begin to see shots of a naked woman running on repeat.  Naked eyeball = naked woman.  When the eyeball finally is tossed back into the guy's face, the naked woman steps over a dress, and hiked it up.  It reminded me of Anger's "Waterworks" in which a woman in 17th century dress runs through a courtyard in alignment with water spurted from fountains.

What do the relationships mean?  I can't tell.  It may have just been something intriguing for the audience to examine.

Bruce Baillie's films had a lot less narrative but were pretty visually striking.  Very nature driven, of course.  Must have grown up around trains or something as they both played heavily into both films, especially, "Castro Street."  San Francisco/PNW stars as a character in most of his work it seems.  He kept his camera very close to the things he was filming...possibly just to show the intimate details.

"To Parsifal" had a man vs. nature vibe to it, but still extremely vague.  In the beginning of the film, it was seemingly peaceful as a boat moves through an inlet.  Then you see unidentified fisherman gutting their catch.  Of course we then see a train slicing through a forest, while two naked humans take notice.  As far as I can tell, it has got to have something to do with Man abusing nature.

Peterson and Baillie's films were pretty interesting, but I enjoyed "The Cage" more than Baillie's work, personally.  West Side til we die.