In 1971, Ingmar Bergman made his first English-language film, THE TOUCH, starring ensemble regulars Max von Sydow and Bibi Andersson, along with seventies everyman Elliott Gould. Thirty years later, Marie Losier decided to recast herself in Gould’s role, breathing new life into Bergman’s most maligned filmic endeavor.Read More »
This film is made in three sections, each leading towards the final abstraction, and each resembling a search for meaning and order amidst a plethora of electronic, chemical and mechanistic information. In sky light the layers of imagery are gradually stripped away: Rivers, trees, snow covered rocks and clouds gradually give way to an ominous cobalt blue sky and the rotating blades of the camera shutter. In the final sequence the layers of the photographic emulsion are gradually striped away until only dust and the light of the film projector remains.Read More »
One frame was taken every ten seconds throughout the hours of daylight. The camera was mounted on an equatorial stand, which is a piece of equipment used by astronomers to track the stars. In order to remain stationary in relation to the star field, the mounting is aligned with the Earth’s axis and rotates about its own axis once every 24 hours. Rotating at the same speed as the Earth, the camera is always pointing at the either its own shadow or the sun. Selection of image, (sky or Earth; sun or shadow), was controlled by the extent of cloud coverage, i.e. whether the sun was in or out. If the sun was out, the camera was turned towards its own shadow; if it was in, the camera was turned towards the sun. A directional microphone was used to sample sound every two hours. These samples were later cut to correspond, both in space and time, with the image on the screen.Read More »
Synopsis
Consisting of 25 sections, each segment is a meditation–often comic–about the nature of recorded sound, both abstract and representational, about the many possible kinds of audiovisual relationships, and about their philosophical implications.Read More »
A subjective documentary that explores the numerous theories about the hidden meanings withinStanley Kubrick’s film The Shining (1980). The film may be over 30 years old but it continues to inspire debate, speculation, and mystery. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments. Together they’ll draw the audience into a new maze, one with endless detours and dead ends, many ways in, but no way out.Read More »
Acclaimed mixed-media artist Chong Gon Byun uses found and discarded objects to create intricate, surrealist sculptures that explore the clash between postindustrial civilization and our contemporary consumerist culture.Read More »
Walden, Jonas Mekas’ first completed diary film, is an epic portrait of the New York avant-garde art scene of the 60s, and also stands as a groundbreaking work of personal cinema.Read More »
From the Pole to the Equator (1987)
By JANET MASLIN
April 6, 1988
New York Times
LEAD: To watch ”From the Pole to the Equator” is to feel that one has seen a ghost – many ghosts, human and animal, from places all over the globe. The spectral quality of this documentary is overwhelming. Two Italian film makers, Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi, have drawn upon turn-of-the-century film from regions that were then fabulously exotic – the Arctic, India, Africa and less remote but equally striking settings in the Dolomites and the Caucasus – and assembled it at a sleepwalker’s pace, with changeable color tints and a humming electronic score.Read More »
A series of snapshots from the life of a fictional actress named Shirley serves to weave together thirteen paintings by Edward Hopper (e.g. “Office at Night”, “Western Motel”, “Usherette”, “A Woman in the Sun”) into a fascinating synthesis of painting and film, personal and political history. Each station in Shirley’s professional and private life from the 1930s to 1960s is precisely dated: It is always August 28/29 of the year in question, as the locations vary from Paris to New York to Cape Cod.Read More »