In this excerpt no point of reference, whether visual, narrative or even sound is offered to the viewer, as the film is entirely silent. A succession of images collide on screen in a seemingly random manner: shots of foliage, shadows, the flickering of street lights in the night. The movements are very swift: the camera catches glimpses of the tops of trees as they pass by or a hamlet nestled in the landscape. The editing highlights the recurrence of a series of motifs: a window that opens and closes, a door latch, trees and sky. A series of contrasting positions are explored – between light, day/night, different colours: orange to blue to black which creates a kaleidoscopic effect, characteristic of certain currents of experimental cinema very present since cinema’s birth. The image is blurred, creating a visual effect that is both uncomfortable and hypnotic: the images reach us, sometimes giving us the impression of having difficulty focusing, although we can identify their nature; we recognise the fleeting impressions and sensations experienced during a train journey, or a car journey at dusk. Who do these sensations belong to? Where do they come from? They seem to have no identifiable origin, yet the viewer, immersed in this fast flowing stream of images is won over by their frenetic rhythm. Brought in by their hypnotic effect, the viewer is like a young child immersed in their cradle, trying to decipher the world around them, receiving visual snatches of which it is, as of yet, impossible to put a name to. The very material of the image, linked to the use of film, participates in this palpable sensuality throughout the clip, notably in the shot of the shadow of the hand sliding on the wall, as if it could physically touch the foliage.
What allows us to establish a link between these apparently disparate fragments could be the silhouette which passes through the light, giving a rhythm to the sequence with its ghostly presence, which is none other than the shadow of the filmmaker himself, thus affirming by its presence at the heart of the film and following the example of others after him (see the extract from Jonas Mekas: Walden), the central place of the role of subjectivity in this cinema of sensation.
Comment
In this excerpt no point of reference, whether visual, narrative or even sound is offered to the viewer, as the film is entirely silent. A succession of images collide on screen in a seemingly random manner: shots of foliage, shadows, the flickering of street lights in the night. The movements are very swift: the camera catches glimpses of the tops of trees as they pass by or a hamlet nestled in the landscape. The editing highlights the recurrence of a series of motifs: a window that opens and closes, a door latch, trees and sky. A series of contrasting positions are explored – between light, day/night, different colours: orange to blue to black which creates a kaleidoscopic effect, characteristic of certain currents of experimental cinema very present since cinema’s birth. The image is blurred, creating a visual effect that is both uncomfortable and hypnotic: the images reach us, sometimes giving us the impression of having difficulty focusing, although we can identify their nature; we recognise the fleeting impressions and sensations experienced during a train journey, or a car journey at dusk. Who do these sensations belong to? Where do they come from? They seem to have no identifiable origin, yet the viewer, immersed in this fast flowing stream of images is won over by their frenetic rhythm. Brought in by their hypnotic effect, the viewer is like a young child immersed in their cradle, trying to decipher the world around them, receiving visual snatches of which it is, as of yet, impossible to put a name to. The very material of the image, linked to the use of film, participates in this palpable sensuality throughout the clip, notably in the shot of the shadow of the hand sliding on the wall, as if it could physically touch the foliage.
What allows us to establish a link between these apparently disparate fragments could be the silhouette which passes through the light, giving a rhythm to the sequence with its ghostly presence, which is none other than the shadow of the filmmaker himself, thus affirming by its presence at the heart of the film and following the example of others after him (see the extract from Jonas Mekas: Walden), the central place of the role of subjectivity in this cinema of sensation.