{"id":5658,"date":"2015-04-02T19:30:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T18:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/?p=5658"},"modified":"2018-01-26T11:42:47","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T11:42:47","slug":"seconds-of-eternity-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/2015\/04\/02\/seconds-of-eternity-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Seconds of Eternity: The Films of Gregory J. Markopoulos Program 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder<\/p>\n<p><strong>SECONDS OF ETERNITY: THE FILMS OF GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS PROGRAM 2<br \/>\nThursday 2 April 2015, at 7:30pm<br \/>\nBerkeley Pacific Film Archive<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, personally, the Cinema is music; is music with its contrapuntal elaborations,\u201d Gregory J. Markopoulos wrote in 1955. \u201cCinema is the noble metaphysical Art of our age, and of our one world without boundaries. Cinema can show us in what aspects we differ from one another, and in what aspects we remain the same. Cinema can draw nations together, and dissolve boundaries between groups of men. Lastly, Cinema is the representative of Life, which no other Art can give us, so truly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the great visionary filmmakers of the twentieth century, Markopoulos was an equally insightful writer on film aesthetics, theory, and criticism. His call for an ideal cinema is one that remains highly relevant today, giving us direction and inspiration. The presentations at BAM\/PFA this April pick up where our 2012 Markopoulos retrospective left off, offering a rare chance to see films made between 1967 and 1969. The series coincides with the launch of <a href=\"http:\/\/thevisiblepress.com\/product\/film-as-film\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Film as Film: The Collected Writings of Gregory J. Markopoulos<\/em><\/a> (The Visible Press, 2014), a volume that offers essential reading and insights into the mind of a poet filmmaker. We welcome the book\u2019s editor, London-based film curator Mark Webber, who will introduce the programs. \u2014Susan Oxtoby, Senior Film Curator<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gregory J. Markopoulos, Bliss, 1967, 6 min<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Gregory J. Markopoulos,&nbsp;Gammelion, 1967, 54 min<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Co-presented with San Francisco Cinematheque, with thanks to Robert Beavers and Temenos Archive.<\/p>\n<a onclick=\"wpex_toggle(1525364642, 'PROGRAMME NOTES', 'Read less'); return false;\" class=\"wpex-link\" id=\"wpexlink1525364642\" href=\"#\">PROGRAMME NOTES<\/a><div class=\"wpex_div\" id=\"wpex1525364642\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>SECONDS OF ETERNITY: THE FILMS OF GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS PROGRAM 1<br \/>\n<\/strong>Wednesday 1 April 2015, at 7:30pm<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong>Berkeley Pacific Film Archive<\/p>\n<p><strong>BLISS<br \/>\nGregory J. Markopoulos, US\/Greece, 1967, 16mm, color, silent, 6 min<br \/>\n<\/strong>Consisting of images that were superimposed at the moment of filming, <em>Bliss<\/em> is the first film Markopoulos made after recolating to Europe. \u201cThere was a very beautiful little church which I found in Hydra, the island in Greece. I shot the film on two different days\u201d (Markopoulos).<\/p>\n<p><strong>GAMMELION<br \/>\nGregory J. Markopoulos, US\/Italy, 1967, 16mm, color, sound, 54 min<\/strong><br \/>\nThe elegantly spare <em>Gammelion<\/em> was filmed in and around the castle of Roccasinibalda in Italy, where Markopoulos shot approximately seven minutes of imagery. \u201cThe film is structured by a thousand slow fades in and out of black-and-white leader, which extend its running time . . . As the screen winks from light to dark and the reverse, tiny shots, sometimes just single frames\u2014are interjected of the landscape around the castle. We gradually move closer and closer to it, view the corridors, glimpse a nude couple in the frescoes, and then move outside again. On the soundtrack there are snatches of Roussel, the sound of horses\u2019 hooves over pavement, and the voice of the filmmaker reading Rilke\u2019s lines: \u2018To be loved means to be consumed. To love means to radiate with inexhaustible light. To be loved is to pass away, to love is to endure\u2019\u201d (P. Adams Sitney, <em>Visionary Film<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>The radical form of <em>Gammelion<\/em> was the first step towards Markopoulos\u2019 final film, the 80-hour long <em>Eniaios<\/em>, for which the filmmaker re-edited his entire body of work.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#top\">Back to top<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SECONDS OF ETERNITY: THE FILMS OF GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS PROGRAM 2 Thursday 2 April 2015, at 7:30pm Berkeley Pacific Film Archive \u201cFor me, personally, the Cinema is music; is music with its contrapuntal elaborations,\u201d Gregory J. Markopoulos wrote in 1955. \u201cCinema is the noble metaphysical Art of our age, and of our one world without [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[136],"class_list":["post-5658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gregory-markopoulos-film-as-film","tag-gregory-markopoulos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}