[.ca] By Brakhage: Anthology

From Amazon.com:
While you go out to see most other kinds of movies, you must go inward to see the extraordinary avant-garde films of Stan Brakhage. Foremost among American experimental film artists, Brakhage influenced the evolution of the moving image for nearly 50 years (his impact is readily seen on MTV), and this meticulously prepared Criterion Collection anthology represents a virtual goldmine of Brakhage's finest, most challenging work. Challenging because--as observed by Brakhage film scholar Fred Camper in the accompanying booklet--these 26 carefully selected films require the viewer to be fully receptive to "the act of seeing with one's own eyes" (to quote the title of one film, consisting entirely of autopsy footage), which is to say, open to the perceptual and psychological responses that are provoked by Brakhage's non-narrative shorts, ranging here from nine seconds to 31 minutes in length. While "Dog Star Man" (1961-64) is regarded as Brakhage's masterpiece, what emerges from this superb collection is the creative coherence of Brakhage's total vision. Through multilayered textures (often painted or scratched directly on film) and infinite combinations of imagery and rhythmic cutting, these films (most of them soundless) represent the most daring and purely artistic fulfillment of Criterion's ongoing goal to preserve important films on DVD. --Jeff Shannon

near worthless:
never before has a film gone from my dvd player to the sell pile on my desk in such a rush. when i read that his 'visionary style' had influences seen on MTV and major motion pictures i guess i expected a little more. what i got was an interesting film on autopsies and a whole lot of collage pieces consisting of a slew of rapid fire images of sloppy paintings. i felt that most of the films were pretty indistinguishable. i felt the lack of any sound or narrative to make viewing the films even more grating. i can only recommend this if you are comfortable with your pretentiousness.

be sure b 4 u buy!!!!:
be warned!this dvd is not going to appeal to the "average joe" because it doesn't make much sense and is to be considered art.if that actually sounds trippy to you,you'll probably love it as I do!this is the perfect example of just why dvd's are such an improved format versus vhs-many of the images mr brakhage presents to the viewer go by so quickly you find it hard to distinguish what they look like,or somtimes there is a frame that looks so trippy you just have to pause it.and that is the real treat-the fact that you can pause the frames.another good thing about the dvd is stan's commentary on most of the films.he helps the veiwer to put into perspective his ideas on what he hoped to accomplish or put forth on each film.the squeamish will want to steer clear of the film with the autopsy footage,but all the others should be acceptable to most folks. the bottom line is that it's a great dvd that'll provide hours upon hours of entertainment,and any lover of the arts should grab this one up!(one thing I found that makes for an even more interesting experience while watching the films is to put on some music because most of them are silent.some musical suggestings to go along are buckethead's "electric tears",any angelo badalamenti movie score,litsz' dante symphony,any kronos quartet,and of coarse philip glass.these are all pretty mellow cd's with lots of "color" to them with goes VERY well with the overall tempo of the films.)

be sure b 4 u buy!!!!:
be warned!this dvd is not going to appeal to the "average joe" because it doesn't make much sense and is to be considered art.if that actually sounds trippy to you,you'll probably love it as I do!this is the perfect example of just why dvd's are such an improved format versus vhs-many of the images mr brakhage presents to the viewer go by so quickly you find it hard to distinguish what they look like,or somtimes there is a frame that looks so trippy you just have to pause it.and that is the real treat-the fact that you can pause the frames(to have these films on vhs format would absolutly suck because it would look so crappy paused).another good thing about the dvd is stan's commentary on most of the films.he helps the viewer to put into perspective his ideas on what he hoped to accomplish or put forth on each film.the squeamish will want to steer clear of the film with the autopsy footage,but all the others should be acceptable to most folks. the bottom line is that it's a great dvd that'll provide hours upon hours of entertainment,and any lover of the arts should grab this one up!(one thing I found that makes for an even more interesting experience while watching the films is to put on some music because most of them are silent.some musical suggestings to go along are buckethead's "electric tears",any angelo badalamenti movie score,litsz' dante symphony,any kronos quartet,and of coarse philip glass.these are all pretty mellow cd's with lots of "color" to them with goes VERY well with the overall tempo of the films.)

A Haunting Overview of a Life's Work in Film:
This two-disc DVD set contains twenty-six experimental films by Stan Brakhage. The total playing time is approximately two hundred and forty-three minutes. Three short video encounters of the filmmaker are included on disc two, and a 24-page booklet, of supporting documentation by Fred Camper, is supplied in the deluxe DVD case. Disc one consists of four films, shot mostly before 1964, with Brakhage in his role as a mountain dwelling family man. Here he photographs a drunken party, scenes of himself making love to his wife and uses extended shots of himself as a woodsman chopping logs. The first three films are mostly edited in an abstract manner, with a generous use of multiple exposures. The fourth film, "The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes", is a more literal exploration of the facts surrounding bodily death. It is shot with a sense of reverence and distant objectivity towards the remains of the human body. Disc two consists mostly of silent films. The first two consist of representational images and deal with both sex and childbirth. Most of the next twenty films were made by hand painting film stock and then using a range of optical printing techniques to achieve an amazing spatial/temporal image sequence variety. The highlight of this set of films is "Untitled ( For Marilyn )" \o 1992 \c. This film intercuts existential poetry, Brakhage's hand film painting techniques and haunting processed photography of a local church. Much as in the reading of good poetry texts, one should perhaps watch these films a few at a time, in order to savor the nuances available in each work. The short video "encounters" with the artist suggest, that even with his retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, Brakhage wonders whether pursuing a life as a filmmaker might be considered to be madness. One can clearly see the wisdom of his life's choice, however, in the act of viewing these captivating experimental films.

"An Artistic Epiphany":
The eye is an extention of the brain, as Brakhage himself says. There is also a sort of mid-region between eye and brain: the mind's eye, that which interprets and analyses what we see. The films in this collection are trying for the mind and the mind's eye, catching the viewer almost off guard with visually arresting imagery. An approximation of Brakhage's own words: "Painting on film seems opening, opening, opening; while traditional film methods don't seem so: much that can be done in narrative film seems to have been done." I could hardly disagree, and Brakhage's own films are a testament to this. I could never hope to explicate all (or even many) of the films on these two DVD's, so I will just discuss the most artistically important (if not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing) film: Dog Star Man. It is, in essence, the story of a man (Brakhage himself) living an epic--he dreams the epic in the Prelude, climbs partway up a mountain to chop down a tree (symbolic, in my opinion, of the Norse World Tree, Yggdrasil, a comment on the modern-day destruction of and lack of care for the environment) in Part I; discusses/illustrates the family in Part II; and has a \oadult fantasy\c daydream in Part III. Finally, in Part IV, there is a cosmic deconstruction (symbolized by fire and other layers of superimposition)due to the destruction of the world tree, and a recap of the themes previously discussed in the film. But these few words are not sufficient to completely explain the film. Brakhage seems concerned with the issue of mortality and the life before it: he superimposes footage of solar flares, trees, water, snow, and trees to give the viewer impressions on the origin of life. Of course, Part II is composed in large part of footage of Brakhage's own children (babies at this point), and this is a further comment on the nature of life. I have read reviews of Dog Star Man, saying that it can only convey to the viewer the story of a man walking up a mountain with his dog, and that the rest can be taken only at face value. These reviewers are wrong. If I had the time to discuss the other films on this flawless compilation, I would; this review can only begin to touch upon the major themes with which Brakhage dealt: birth, death, \oadult relations\c, and the search for god.