Reading Response Two: Due February 1 at Noon

Sitney, “The Lyrical Film”

1. While Brakhage’s Reflections on Black is a trance film, why does Sitney argue that it anticipates the lyrical film?
Because the camera is from the characters POV. The sequences are the visions of a blind man, but they are not in a dreamstate.
2. What are the key characteristics of the lyrical film (the first example of which was Anticipation of the Night).
Puts the camera in the first person as the protagonist, showing little more than the cameramans hands and shadow.
3. Which filmmaker was highly influential on Brakhage’s move to lyrical film in terms of film style, and why?
Joseph Cornell. He asked Brakhage to make two films for him which had no skeletal drama and no characters.
4. What does Sitney mean by "hard" and "soft" montage? What examples of each does he give from Anticipation of the Night? {Tricky question; read the entire passage very carefully.]
"Hard" montage is clashing images that are very noticeable, "soft" montage is being given a preview of the future images beforehand.
5. What are the characteristics of vision according to Brakhage’s revival of the Romantic dialectics of sight and imagination? [I’m not asking here about film style, I’m asking about Brakhage’s views about vision.]
People are so accustomed to their sight that they don't appreciate it. He wanted to see with "untutored" eyes like those of an infant, which are required to experience everything the eye sees before coming to a conclusion about it.

Sitney, “Major Mythopoeia”

6. Why does Sitney argue, “It was Brakhage, of all the major American avant-garde filmmakers, who first embraced the formal directives and verbal aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism.”
Use of paint and scratching on celluloid to reflect upon the process of filmmaking.
7. What archetypes are significant motifs in Dog Star Man, and which writers in what movement are associated with these four states of existence?
Innocence, Experience, Rationalism, and Imagination. Associated with Blake.

Sitney, "The Potted Psalm"
[This is an addition to the syllabus. After reading the introductory paragraphs, focus on the discussions of The Cage and Entr'acte (p. 47-54 and The Lead Shoes (p. 68-70).]

8. According to Sitney, what stylistic techniques are used to mark perspective and subjectivity in The Cage, and why is this an important development in the American avant-garde film?
He "used every trick in the book and a few that weren't", such as anamorphic lenses, reverse motion, and always played with perspective which gave rise to highly subjectivist filming.
9. For Sitney, what are the key similarities and differences between Entr'acte and The Cage?
Similarities: camera tricks, comical violence, direct intercutting. Difference: Entr'acte was suppose to be satire and much more comical than The Cage.
10. How does Peterson synthesize the seemingly incongruent suggestions of his Workshop 20 students into The Lead Shoes?
He incorporated everyone's incongruent suggestions in the premise of the film.
11. Compare your response to The Lead Shoes with the descriptions by Sitney and Parker Tyler.

We definitely don't see eye to eye on The Lead Shoes.