In addition, the lighting in the shots of Jane giving birth is immensely pure and natural, elevating the close-ups of her body as the baby slowly emerges from the womb. The combination of these shots creates a montage sequence that possesses the ability to evoke deep affection, intimate connection between Brakhage’s work and the viewer without any necessary soundtrack. Later, the viewer sees the shot of Jane and Brakhage embracing each other appear between shots in the bathtub of their hands. This utilization of montage somehow helps alleviate the distressing experience and allows the poetic aspect of the film to expand. At the moment when Jane’s is in her labor, Brakhage cut from shots of her painful expression to her smiling face from earlier footages, mixing the window and water shots in-between. Jane’s body is in motion together with the rapid appearance of water and light. Abrupt shots demonstrating Jane’s beauty, her skin and facial expression is placed next to shots of her struggle and pain when giving birth to the baby. The opening diagonal shot shows the window, which is then followed by a montage sequence of the sunlight reflecting on the water in a bathtub where Brakhage’s pregnant wife, Jane is bathing. The confrontational experience of witnessing a new life being brought into the world in this breathtaking experimental work is undoubtedly achieved and lifted by the power of montage.īrakhage’s Window Water Baby Moving is filled with gorgeous, vibrant home video footages: warm, orange-ish colors, water permeating over skin, eyes, smiles, touchings and visible appearance of a baby’s head in the womb-all of these imageries capture the stunning process of a child being born. Among Brakhage’s tireless body of works, I have found Window Water Baby Moving so astonishing, overwhelming, mind-blowing and raw. Brakhage’s experimental works have gone beyond the conventions, breaking down continuity with each shot refusing to connect conceptually with each other. Many of Brakhage’s films transitions from shot to shot so quickly that it is impossible to keep track of what they show. Moreover, there is no clear sense of time or of whether a coherent event might occur. The perception of imagery in Brakhage's works bring the cinematic experience to a different level: An image that the viewer observes on screen may, in fact, result from the movements within a shot. Among these, rapid montage is probably the most visible and interesting aspect of Brakhage's filmmaking style. Many aspects of Brakhage’s experimental works include fast-paced montage, hand-held camera, painting on film, superimposition, time lapse and jump cuts. Similarly, early Stan Brakhage films bear the influence of Sergei Eisenstein’s theories about montage-triumphing the importance of editing in the process of making films, the power of the juxtaposition to signify intellectual and ideological meaning. Without a doubt, Eisenstein’s editing technique serves as mental stimulation rather than a narrative medium, enabling him to spread out political propaganda through emotional catalyst to the viewer. Influenced by the Kuleshov’s effect, Eisenstein used these shots in a way that gives the viewer an impression of a lion from sleeping to awakening to rising up, representing a symbol of Russian people are triggered and determined to fight against Czar. An example for his brilliant use of montage is the shot of three stone lions in different positions: the first is asleep, the second awakened, and the third looking up. The constant change between shots-transitions from long sequences to quick jump cuts-structures like a roller-coaster and keep the viewer’s eyes wide open. In his classic masterpiece Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein created an intense and violent sequence with this principle of dialectic montage. Eisenstein’s philosophy aligns with Kuleshov, a Soviet film theorist who invented the idea that juxtaposing two shots can create greater meaning via the relationship established between them. Eisenstein believes that if placed on top of each other, two photographed immobile images may result in the appearance of movement. Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein states in “Firm Form: Essays In Film Theory” that “Montage is an idea that arises from the collision of independent shots-shots even opposite to one another: the “dramatic” principle”.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |