FM4 - Spectatorship - Experimental and Expanded Film/Video

'A' Grade Exam Response

Section B – Experimental and Expanded Film/Video

How has your experience of experimental and expanded film/video liberated your sense of what film spectatorship can be?

Admittedly my initial reaction to experimental film embodied exactly its catalyst behind the creation of it: my viewing as a spectator was an uneasy one, because I was not being told how to think or react to it. Without the body of work consisting of simple techniques such as back-story to hint to how I should perceive the genre, or in many cases dialogue, it left me bereft of the usual mainstream or even independent spectatorship of film I was used to that provided clues to how I should receive the films.

In the case of Andy Warhol’s experimental body of work, I suddenly began to appreciate the poetic relationship between visual and sound that is not always distinct in less avant-garde films, as I found that they were more of a feeling than a narrative. The 1966 film “Chelsea Girls” opposed the sanitized, deeply censored era of the time with its references to sex that the film industry ignored normally. This film, with its revolutionary split-screen techniques furthered the cinematic progress irreversibly, as did his film “Sleep”. With six hours of a man asleep shot in monochrome black and white stock that later influenced a film of David Beckham asleep, I found it refreshing how Warhol dodged categorization by pairing very “highbrow” films reminiscent of the type found in an art-house with utter trash cinema, the very epitome of pop culture. For his lack of snobbish outlook, I appreciated the concept and feel of his films exceptionally.

On the other hand, a film I did not enjoy was Kenneth Anger’s “Scorpio Rising”. I could see that the fetish of objects displayed to the audience through the tracking of items on a table had later influenced the visual elements of “Taxi Driver”. I could understand that with its energetic pace and hidden hints of homosexuality, its underground success in the 60s was part of a revolution in cinema that could not have progressed without in some ways being taboo. Perhaps the problem that I found was that the spectator was addressed too vaguely, too much in a culture of highbrow for me to fully appreciate while viewing.

I did find that the linear narrative of “Food” by Svankmajer, with its eerie addressing of themes such as consumerism, materialism and cannibalism easier to view, perhaps because, even if it gave me an unflattering sense of the human race being like machines, it still evoked some emotion.

Likewise, David Lynch’s “Eraserhead”, inspired by his dull and lifeless time in Philadelphia, gave me a nightmarish feel through the almost lazy pace of the film, non-personal mise-en-scene within his grey apartment and setting of an industrial, abandoned zone that had connotations of disfigurement. The strong elements of male sexual imagery with the worm at the beginning spookily similar to the idea of sperm and the theme of irresponsible sex leading to the mutant baby made me shudder. Furthermore, the minimal dialogue that suddenly collapsed when Henry said, “where have you been?” strengthened my reaction as the spectator wholly because it was the lack of speech leading to it that heightened its anguish. This film may have directed me wondering negatively behind the purpose of life, but it did evoke a matter of playing on my mind afterwards because of its haunting nature.

I found that in experimental cinema, stop-motion film was my least favourite, as I doubted its ability to suggest neither meaning nor reaction out of me, perhaps because the connotations that lie with me as a contemporary viewer are inspired by Keane’s “Bedshaped” music video, and I would only watch that and appreciate it because of its audio.

Enjoyable films such as “Koyaanisqatsi”, referencing Warhol’s breakthrough in post-modernism during the technique of filming people gazing hauntingly into the camera, breaking the fourth wall resulted in me expanding my knowledge on how cinema progressed with such avant-garde cinematic and thematic techniques. In contrast, whereas “Koyaanisqatsi” took a thoughtful few years between 1975 and 1982 to produce, I found “Bodysong” entirely slow-paced and devoid of the same meaning. Whereas “Koyaanisqatsi” had used the relationship between visual and sound in a manner that poetically embraced the rhythm of classical music, “Bodysong” dealt with random but similar images that didn’t fit together quite as well. For instance, the footage (that was found in archives rather than purposely filmed) displayed childbirth, something that is seen to be beautiful, in a grotesque way, and then went on to noisily expose themes such as bullying with clips from over the world. Having become annoyed with the off-beat, childlike repetition of the music that I was not accustomed to as a viewer, I noticed that everything I was seeing at the beginning were things not to be seen with the naked eye. Although I appreciated the concept behind it, I could not help but challenge the mundane and boring style by wondering if perhaps the audience does not wish to see these things usually left free of exposure. Regardless, it did evoke a reaction.

However, the linear narrative of “La Jetee”, which I found pleasing to experience as a spectator accustomed to plot and dialogue, was altogether put together in a surrealist style I recognised as someone who is used to mainstream viewing, and it perhaps did not play on my mind as much as the others due to its philosophical approach being engulfed by narrative. Whereas in the other cases, I had to really think about the films.

Finally, my favourite of all to watch was the 1992 film “For Marilyn” by Stan Brakhage. This film, filled with fast-paced shots of beautifully placed framing, mixed rhythm and light to demonstrate aesthetic enjoyment as a whole. As the other films had displayed asynchronous sound in some cases, or limitations of dialogue, I found that my response to this film as a viewer was extraordinarily liberating, as the silence of the work meant that the fleeting, rhythmic flickers of hand painted stills were the music instead. After enjoying the techniques used that involved the images to be ran through a camera reel for artistic effect, I could only say that my response to this type of experimental film blew my mind in that I had to think for myself rather than be spoon-fed. The liberation of my sense of what film spectatorship usually requires such as a plot, narrative, dialogue, sound and smooth editing gave me a sense to be free of these ideals and respond just how I felt suited it.