CINEMA FOR THE EYES AND EARS
London Roxy Bar and Screen
Tuesday 30 October 2007, at 8pm

ARNULF RAINER
Peter Kubelka, Austria, 1958, 35mm, b/w, sound, 8 min
“He has even created a film whose images can no more be ‘turned off’ by the closing of eyes than can the soundtrack thereof it (for it is composed entirely of white frames rhythming thru black inter-spaces and of such an intensity as to create its pattern straight thru closed eyelids) so that the whole ‘mix’ of the audio-visual experience is clearly ‘in the head’, so to speak: and if one looks at it openly, one can see ones own eye cells as if projected onto the screen and can watch one’s optic physiology activated by the soundtrack in what is, surely, the most basic Dance of Life of all (for the sounds of the film do resemble and, thus, prompt the inner ear’s hearing of its own pulse output at intake of sound).” (Stan Brakhage)

YYAA
Wojciech Bruszewski, Poland, 1973, 35mm, colour, sound, 5 min
“The author of the film (appearing on the screen) is shouting “YAAAH…” The light comes from four sources being switched at random (this takes between 1 and 8 seconds) by an electronic device. In any moment, only one of the four lamps casts light on the filmmaker. Each light-change is accompanied by a different voice modulation of the author’s voice. The film technique makes it possible for the author to exhale for several minutes. The alternating close-ups and half-close-ups are totally unjustified.” (Wojciech Bruszewski)

SPEAK
John Latham, UK, 1968-69, 16mm, colour, sound, 11 min
“Speak is his second attack on the cinema. Not since Len Lye’s films in the thirties has England produced such a brilliant example of animated abstraction. Speak burns its way directly into the brain. It is one of the few films about which it can truly be said, ‘it will live in your mind’.” (Ray Durgnat)

BERLIN HORSE
Malcolm Le Grice, UK, 1970, 16mm, colour, sound, 8 min
“Berlin Horse is a synthesis of a number of works which explore the transformation of the image by re-filming from the screen and by complex printing techniques. There are two original sequences: a piece of early newsreel and a section of 8mm film shot in Berlin – a village in Northern Germany. The 8mm material is re-filmed in various ways from the screen onto 16mm and that in turn used for permutative superimposition and color treatment in the printer. The music is composed for the film by Brian Eno and like elements of the image, explores off-setting loops with each other so that their phases shift.” (Malcolm Le Grice)

THE DIVINE MIRACLE
Daina Krumins, USA, 1973, 16mm, colour, sound, 5 min
“An intriguing composite of what looks like animation and pageant-like live action is The Divine Miracle, which treads a delicate line between reverence and spoof as it briefly portrays the agony, death and ascension of Christ in the vividly coloured and heavily outlined style of Catholic devotional postcards, while tiny angels (consisting only of heads and wings) circle like slow mosquitoes about the central figure. Ms. Krumins tells me that no animation is involved, that the entire action was filmed in a studio, and that Christ, the angels and the background were combined in the printing. She also says it took her two years to produce it.” (Edgar Daniels)

AXIOMATIC GRANULARITY
Paul Sharits, USA, 1972-73, 16mm, colour, sound, 20 min
“In Spring 1972 a series of analyses of colour emulsion ‘grain’ imagery was undertaken (the word ‘imagery: is significant because only representations of light sensitive crystals, or ‘grain’, remain on a developed roll of colour film). The investigation is preliminary to the shooting of Section 1 of “Re: Re: Projection”, Variable Emulsion Density, wherein attempts to construct convincing lap dissolves of solid colour fields with straight fine grain Ektachrome ECO proved unsatisfactory. It was thought that more ‘grainy’ colour field interactions might adequately prevent the undesirable smoothness of hue mixture resulting from ECO superimposition. A discreteness of individual hues, during superimposition, is necessary; then, a switch to Ektachrome EF, pushed extra stops in development, seemed somewhat reasonable. Still, unexpected (colour blurring) problems arose and it was clear that a ‘blow up’ of the situation was called for; a set of primary principles was needed and, particle by particle, Axiomatic Granularity seemed to formulate itself. Its ‘structure’ lacks normative ‘expressive intentionality’.” (Paul Sharits)

DRESDEN DYNAMO
Lis Rhodes, UK, 1974, 16mm, colour, sound, 5 min
“The result of experiments with the application of Letraset and Letratone onto clear film. It is essentially about how graphic images create their own sound by extending into that area of film which is ‘read’ by optical sound equipment. The final print has been achieved through three separate, consecutive printings from the original material, on a contact printer. Colour was added with filters on the final run. The film is not a sequential piece. It does not develop crescendos. It creates the illusion of spatial depth from essentially flat, graphic, raw material.” (Tim Bruce)

STRAIGHT AND NARROW
Tony & Beverly Conrad, USA, 1970, 16mm, b/w, sound, 11 min
“An extension of the flicker film phenomenon, Straight and Narrow is a study in subjective colour and visual rhythm. Although it is printed on black and white film, the hypnotic pacing of the images will cause viewers to experience a programmed gamut of hallucinatory colour effects. Straight And Narrow uses the flicker phenomenon not as an end in itself, but as an effectuator of other related phenomena. In this film the colours which are so illusory in The Flicker are visible and under the programmed control of the filmmaker. Also, by using images which alternate in a vibrating flickering schedule, a new impression of motion and texture is created.” (Film-Makers’ Cooperative catalogue)

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