Discussion Questions #2

Sitney, “The Lyrical Film”

1. While Brakhage’s Reflections on Black is a trance film, why does Sitney argue that it anticipates the lyrical film?
-By the time Brakhage had made this film, he had already begun to cross over in lyrical filmmaking. He had moved beyond making films about fantasy and reality and had begun making films about the imagination.

2. What are the key characteristics of the lyrical film (the first example of which was Anticipation of the Night).
-The lyrical film takes the filmmaker and makes him the protagonist. We see the film in first-person through the eyes of the filmmaker. Also, the viewers experience the intense movement of the filmmakers vision. Lastly, Sitney says, the filmmaker plays to the flatness and whiteness of the projector screen, rejecting that the screen is a window into illusion. In other words, the audience is looking at the screen, not into the screen.

3. Which filmmaker was highly influential on Brakhage’s move to lyrical film in terms of film style, and why?
- Marie Menken had a major influence on Brakhage and his work. Her often swirling and swinging camera provided a pre-text for Brakhage to improve upon and explore for the invention of new film forms.

4. What does Sitney mean by "hard" and "soft" montage? What examples of each does he give from Anticipation of the Night? {Tricky question; read the entire passage very carefully.]
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5. What are the characteristics of vision according to Brakhage’s revival of the Romantic dialectics of sight and imagination? [I’m not asking here about film style, I’m asking about Brakhage’s views about vision.]
-Vision is not just what we see with our eyes, because there are things that we view that we don't even notice. Vision also has to do with how our eyes work and their movement which determines how we see things. But much of our vision comes from our mind, where we comprehend and make our own images.


Sitney, “Major Mythopoeia”

6. Why does Sitney argue, “It was Brakhage, of all the major American avant-garde filmmakers, who first embraced the formal directives and verbal aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism.”
-Brakhage was a film visionary, as can be seen with his inventive filmmaking. He was known for his extreme moving camera and fast cutting. He was also known to use the film itself to enrich his art by scratching or painting on the celluloid.

7. What archetypes are significant motifs in Dog Star Man, and which writers in what movement are associated with these four states of existence?
-The four archetypes are Beulah, or Innocence; Generation, or Experience; Ulro, or the hell of rationalism, self absorption, and the domination of nature; Eden, the redeemed unity realm of imagination. William Blake is the writer associated with this movement.


Sitney, "The Potted Psalm"

8. According to Sitney, what stylistic techniques are used to mark perspective and subjectivity in The Cage, and why is this an important development in the American avant-garde film?
-The Cage uses slow, fast, normal, and reverse camera times to give the viewers a subjective feeling. Also the use of stop-motion disappearances and reappearances are used throughout. They also used forward and backward motion which has since been utilized in many films.

9. For Sitney, what are the key similarities and differences between Entr'acte and The Cage?
- Both of the films have an elongated chase scene, a roundabout plot that seems to finish where it began, and they both employ camera tricks that add symbolism to the film. However, "Entr'acte" is much more comical than "The Cage", as it is more of a satire.

10. How does Peterson synthesize the seemingly incongruent suggestions of his Workshop 20 students into The Lead Shoes?
-Peterson relied heavily on editing to synthesize the seemingly random ideas of his Workshop 20 students. He used the passage of time (ellipsis) to associate the very ambiguous ideas that his students presented; such as traditional ballad, the use of a deep sea diving suit, and the inclusion of hamsters(which i assume changed to rats).

11. Compare your response to The Lead Shoes with the descriptions by Sitney and Parker Tyler.
-My reaction didn't cover the actual happenings in "The Lead Shoes" as much as Sitney and Tyler's description. They were able to outline the plot much more efficiently than I, because they have viewed the film repeatedly and fully grasp the filmmakers language. Some things that they described about the plot, I didn't even see happen.