Friday, July 24, 2009



isn't it rich?
are we a pair?
me here at last on the ground,
you in mid-air.
send in the clowns.

isn't it bliss?
don't you approve?
one who keeps tearing around,
one who can't move.
where are the clowns?
send in the clowns.

just when i'd stopped opening doors,
finally knowing the one that i wanted was yours,
making my entrance again with my usual flair,
sure of my lines,
no one is there.

don't you love a farce?
my fault i fear.
i thought that you'd want what i want, sorry my dear
but where are the clowns?
quick, send in the clowns.
don't bother, they're here.

isn't it rich?
isn't it queer,
losing my timing this late
in my career?
and where are the clowns?
there ought to be clowns.
well, maybe next year.

Friday, July 17, 2009

now light blue, now green, almost always pellucid












a still every 60 seconds from larry gottheim's fog line - 1970,
including first and last

the image of the railroad on the shore of the pond figures an ambiguity at the heart of walden. man-made power, the machine with its fire, smoke, and thunder, is juxtaposed to the waters of walden, remarkable for their depth and purity and a matchless, indescribable color - now light blue, now green, almost always pellucid. the iron horse moves across the surface of the earth; the pond invites the eye below the surface. the contrast embodies both the hope and the fear aroused by the impending climax of america's encounter with wild nature.

leo marx, the machine in the garden from chapter 1 of
scott macdonald - the garden in the machine - university of california press - 2001
(also see his a critical cinema: interviews with independent filmmakers - university of california press - 1988, volume 1, larry gottheim interview)


the cinema of attractions directly solicits spectators attention, inciting visual curiosity, and supplying pleasure through an exciting spectacle - a unique event, whether fictional or documentary, that is of interest in itself. the attraction to be displayed may also be of cinematic nature, such as the early close-ups just described, or trick films in which a cinematic manipulation (slow motion, reverse motion, substitution, multiple exposure) provides the film's novelty. it is the direct address of the audience, in which an attraction is offered to the spectator by a cinema showman, that defines this approach to film making. theatrical display dominates over narrative absorption, emphasizing the direct stimulation of shock or surprise at the expense of unfolding a story or creating a diegetic universe. the cinema of attractions expends little energy creating characters with psychological motivations or individual personalities. making use of both fictional and non-fictional attractions, its energy moves outward towards an acknowledged spectator rather than inward towards the character-based situations essential to classical narrative.

tom gunning - the cinema of attractions: early film, its spectator and the avant-garde - 1981
found in early cinema: space frame narrative - bfi publishing - 1990

(pellucid - admitting the passage of light; transparent or translucent
reflecting light evenly from all surfaces)

Thursday, July 16, 2009




ron rice - chumlum - 1964
music - angus maclise
music director - tony conrad

(this is the first in the sound/music from film series)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

univers du western - lonely are the brave








david miller - lonely are the brave - 1962
(landscape photography)


kirk douglas - john w. "jack" burns

whiskey

gena rowlands - jerry bondi

george kennedy - deputy sheriff gutierrez

walter matthau - sheriff morey johnson

carroll o'connor - hinton

william schallert - harry

bill raisch - one arm
(he was stand-in for burt lancaster)

cinematography by philip h. lathrop *
music by jerry goldsmith *
screenplay by dalton trumbo * from the novel brave cowboy by edward abbey

(number 9 of 500 detailing westerns)

Sunday, July 12, 2009

first we must deal with the light of nature, then with nature of light





















trees found in saul levine's note to patti - 1969

title from stan brakhage's a moving picture giving and taking book
frontier press - 1971