Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (and other questions) 9/22

Response to Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome:
 This film provoked an anxiety in me that was hard do describe. The anxiety was brought on by an intense array of bright colors, that was very pleasing at first but soon became almost overwhelming. I'm assuming that this was the intended effect...to portray an intense and ferocious desire for pleasure that ends up with people engorging themselves. Soon enough the images were overlapping and blurred to a point that almost brought on a feeling of dizziness. The themes of materialism and overindulgence were incredibly obvious. It helped simulate a very realistic experience through the use of outrageous costumes and symbolic characters. I suppose that although the film seemed "too long" it was necessary to bring on this intense feeling of anxiety and disorientation.



Sitney, “Ritual and Nature”

1. What are some characteristics of the American psychodrama in the 1940s?
Psychodramas or trance films have to do with a passive protagonist struggling in an externalization of an inner conflict. This was based on Freudian concepts and a confrontation with the self and the past.

2. What does Sitney mean by an “imagist” structure replacing narrative structure in Choreography for the Camera? For reference, you can see the film here:
http://www.ubu.com/film/deren_study-in-choreography.html
Basically, the isolation of movement and gestures (such as dance) are focused as a complete film form. Maya Deren introduced this idea of poetry in Imagism, showing emotion in the choreography.

3. Respond briefly to Sitney’s reading of Ritual in Transfigured Time (27-28); Is his interpretation compatible with your experience of the film?
I would have to say that the "waves of intensity" is the best phrase that described it. It was a flowing piece that seemed to have no climax but was shown in graceful patterns. His interpretation was a bit general and I think that her work seems very significant and personal to her own psyche. I didn't really understand what was going on until we started discussing it, but the dancers and the rhythm of the film captivated me.


Sitney, “The Magus"
4. Paraphrase the paragraph on p. 90 that begins “The filmic dream constituted…” in your own words.
To me it seems that the camera has the power to manipulate how the audience sees an object or person. The way the object is shown can be hinted as symbolic, provoking meditation. We can see something in a different way depending on the way it is presented. There is a psychological trick to this, because it deals with the subconscious of the filmmaker as well as those watching. Nostalgia was the word that hinted at the concept of the subconscious and reminded me of the "trance" genre definition.

5. According to Sitney, what is the ultimate result at the end of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome? How does his reading of the film compare / contrast with your own experience of the film?
The final shot was supposed to be the completion of a hand gesture made throughout the climax when the Magnus comes together as the "Great Beast, Nero, Cagliostro, and the winged Geffe..." and their "spangled moment" is sacrificed to the energy of the "Magnus." I don't understand this in detail but I had a feeling it related to mythology and divinity. Mostly I was just fascinated with the intensity of the colors and costumes.


Sitney, “The Lyrical Film”

6. What are the key characteristics of the lyrical film (the first example of which was Anticipation of the Night).
The lyrical film is a direct representation of the filmmaker's personal vision.

7. 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.]
It seems that hard and soft montage is a contrast, as in the "collision of night and day shots." This relates to a pattern in the camera movement, a flow of colors and a preview of an upcoming image. In Anticipation of the Night he challenges the "shot" as a primary unit of cinema. This must be referring to collision of night and day.

8. 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.]
He claims that language constricts vision and speaks of the idea of sight in relation to the filmmaker's tools...the "camera eye." The eye is capable of imagining reality, and the camera eye is the limitation of the "original liar."


Sitney, “Major Mythopoeia”

9. 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.”
He used fast cutting and he started scratching and painting on the surface of the film, manipulating it in various innovative ways. He also used filters, distorted images, and created 2D space for his images.

10. What archetypes are significant motifs in Dog Star Man, and which writers in what movement are associated with these four states of existence?
 The birth of consciousness, cycle of the seasons, man vs. nature, and "sexual balance in the visual evocation of a fallen titan" were motifs. The Romantic poets and writers such as Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson, Pound, Stevens, Crane, Williams and Zukofsky are associated with them.