'Experimental Film requires a different kind of spectatorship.' Has this been your experience? [35]
Un Chien Andalou, the infamous 1929 surrealist short film from Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, attests to this. Now add your personal response and discussion of spectatorship issues
Chris Marker became known internationally for the short film La Jetée (1962). It tells of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel by using a series of filmed photographs developed as a photomontage of varying pace, with limited narration and sound effects. Now add your personal response and discussion of spectatorship issues
Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a work that maintains all of the mystery, tranquility, unpredictability, and personal attachment that is ever present within the world of dreams. Now add your personal response and discussion of spectatorship issues
A good response will:
- Take into account the technical elements of cinema construction
- Be aware of the themes of film (an ability to construct meaning)
- Acknowledge that the film will challenge the spectator
- Discuss the techniques that the film employs
- Respond on a personal level
- Discuss an understanding or a lack of understanding
- Understand that confusion or boredom/lack of interest by be a response
- Be able to recognise experimental approaches and debate the use of film techniques opposed to pre-determined ideas of more formal mainstream cinema
My Response
Un Chien Andalou, the infamous 1929 surrealist short film from Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, attests to this. throughout the film i was constantly trying to find links between characters and discover some kind of narrative. the film does take on themes of religion and attacking society but adopts a surrealist style. it also plays around with the film its self by making strange unconventional cuts to shock and unease the audience. the part where the man holds the woman's head and goes to cut her eye, the film then cuts to a full moon with clouds passing through it, then cuts to the same shot but with him actually slicing a pigs eye. this challenges the audience greatly as in 1929 people would not be used to seeing such gruesome things and more used to line narrative with non experimental cinematography and editing. i believe that this sequence lacks in pace as the shot of the moon takes far too long and is not smoking. also when watching the film i didn't entirely understand it. i thought parts, like the the cutting of the eye, were pointless and had no meaning.
Chris Marker became known internationally for the short film La Jetée (1962). It tells of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel by using a series of filmed photographs developed as a photomontage of varying pace, with limited narration and sound effects. i did not enjoy this film at all. i thought that the pace of the montage did vary but was always too slow. the shot type in the photographs did change, and did carry the narrative which was made present by a use of voice over narration; unlike un chein where we did not have any form of narrative. also la jetee does have a linear narrative making it more mainstream in that sense but not in sense that it uses still images throughout. the monotonous voice over made it difficult for me to enjoy the film as there was a number of times where i simply stopped listening. it definitely does take a different kind of spectatorship from the normal mainstream film. the part when the images of him and the woman were at the zoo, i thought went on too long. the narration at this point had stopped and there was just the images, each being shown for at least five seconds which got very boring as the framing of the pictures was nothing interesting, nor was the miss en scene.
Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a work that maintains all of the mystery, tranquility, unpredictability, and personal attachment that is ever present within the world of dreams. the themes in this film tackle a womans perspective of themselves and how they see themselves through the mans eyes. this pre dates Laura Mulveys 'male gaze' theory, but can be linked to it as the cloaked figure with the mirrored face constantly repeated the same actions, then at the end we see it is the man who has been walking up the stairs and putting the rose on the bed. the mirrored face has huge significance, as the woman will look at the figure from a low angle shot, and see herself. also i noticed that the film revolves around three main areas in the house; kitchen, living room and bedroom, all of which can be said is where the woman is found. the ideology of the themes is very outdated now as we have moved on from that patriarchal society that was seen over 60 years ago. the experimental technique i enjoyed watching was when she enters the house for a third time and see the figure walking up the stairs, through a long shot. she then goes to follow but there is then a high angle shot of her walking up the stairs to the bedroom. as she begins to walk the camera tilts from left to right and at the same time she falls against the wall giving the impression that the whole set is tilting. contextually i believe that this shows the woman's sickness and weakness as she is essentially following the man to the bedroom, possibly to please him.
