This seemed to me more of an explanation and study of experimental film rather than telling the history. Granted explanations and studies are an important part of history and Bordwell did mention each film in chronological order.
Anyway, moving on, I found this reading to be quite interesting. Though it only mentioned Maya Deren briefly, what little Bordwell did say about her work helped me a lot with interpreting her work. In fact I greatly enjoyed it that he would take a film, give a brief history, and then try to interpret what different parts of the film meant. What the different images could mean, what the different camera angles mean, what the different shots and scene changes mean. It was all very fascination.
When he mentioned the films we have watched in class, or watched on our own, I found those to be the most interesting. Mainly because I have already seen the movie it made it easier to understand the interpretations. It is difficult to imagine why certain objects and scene changes mean something when one has not actually seen the film. There were many interpretations that I had already concluded from watching the films myself, but there were many more that I did not ever think of. When Bordwell would mention an interpretation that I had not thought of before, he explained it in a way that made perfect sense. It was wonderful, really, to have light shone on the subject. One example being his conclusion of 'Ballet Mecanique' when the audience is taken back to the woman who at the beginning was in a swing:
"Seen in another context, her gestures might seem ordinary to us. But by now the film has trained us sufficiently for us to make the connection between this shot and what has preceded it. out expectations have been so strongly geared to seeing rhythmic, mechanical movements that we will probably see her smiles and head gestures as UNnatural, like other motifs we have seen in the film."
I agree that Bordwell's explanations are insightful. With such abstract thoughts being played out in these examples, a discussion is almost required to understand the work. This is definitely shown in the posted video. It is interesting that the woman's starting movements in Ballet Mecanique set the standard for the following movements. The back and forth motion is prominent throughout the video and even the music follows a similar rhythm.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I would have overlooked without Bordwell's explanation. In any case, upon being influenced by the motion of the swing, the following actions do appear "unnatural". From this, I've taken away that the beginning of a work sets a tone or standard that will influence the rest of the piece.