if you ever get a chance to see this (or any of brakhages films) projected on a screen in a theatre the way it was intended to be seen do not miss the opportunity. trust me, this guy knew what he was doing. this is only a dim shadow of the experience. no joke.
For those that don't know what to make of this, an interesting starting point is to ask yourself what your definition of film is - this doesn't fit any of them. It wasn't filmed, didn't require a camera, doesn't contain photos, action, narrative, doesn't need a film projector, can be watched forwards, backwards, at any speed or just held up against the light and pulled through your hands. So, as an experiment, it's kind of interesting, don't you think?
Not really. No. TONS of this same stuff has been produced over the decades from 1st year art and film students. It's the natural expected projects from those who are very young, inexperienced, and desperate to do something which will be perceived as highly artistic. Everyone did it. Yet, he continued at that 1st year level for.....wait for it......his entire career! And the icing on the cake? He is often declared a brilliant genius! LOLOLOL! (most often by non-creative people though)
your argument doesn't take anything away from the piece, it's basically a variation on the classic "I could have done that!" It is visceral film aimed at disturbing and arousing the optic. Yes there is a question of skill, there is also questions of intentionality. I would also like to say these films remind me of how I saw the world when I was child, and I find that a really stunning and beautiful, to just let them enter your mind without the structured frames of socially conceived thinking one has built on top of the world they see. Maybe thats not for you, maybe you just see it as naive and unskillful, thats fine.
"Columbus being at a party with many noble Spaniards, where, as was customary, the subject of conversation was the Indies: one of them undertook to say: 'Sir, even if you had not found the Indies, we should not have been devoid of a man who would have attempted the same, as Spain is full of great men clever in cosmography and literature.' Columbus said nothing in answer to these words, but having asked an egg to be brought to him, he placed it on the table saying: 'Gentlemen, I will lay a wager with any of you, that you will not make this egg stand on end as I will, unsupported and without anything at all.' They all tried, and no one succeeded in making it stand up. When the egg came round to the hands of Columbus, by beating it down on the table he crushed a little of one end, and thus fixed it upright; wherefore all understood what he would have said: that after the deed is done, everybody knows how to do it."
I really think the purpose of this is to show the futility of the moth as a parallel the the futile aspects of humanity. You see the moths are attracted to the light, then they are eventually eaten apart by it as it slowly tears away at them. But the moths themselves are unaware of this, in a trance-state induced by the light. Before they know it they're gone.
"Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception."----Stan Brakhage, "Metaphors on Vision"
I've actually seen this on DVD too, in college. I think Mr. Brakhage expressed that the moths were found in one of his light fixtures, and that he "didn't want them to die in vain," so he used them in his film.
My friend Vincent Venturella went to college in late 2000 and studied Brakhage. When I first saw his works, thanks to Vin, I was opened to a new medium of art
The very thing that attracts and sometimes kills moths (the light) is allowing us to view their dismembered parts up close in a very fluttering, rapid, almost violent way. This is a dark poetry (about light)
@MrMeddled "Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception."
Reminds me of Norm Macdonald's moth joke. Also, I knew Stan. Sold him smokes in Boulder. This is such a peculiar entry into the philosophical notion of what a "film" *is*, it's just so captivating.
all of brakhages films, and especially this one, should be seen projected on a screen. even viewing it on a large tv screen on dvd only approximates the experience. this is like looking at a black and white postage stamp of the mona lisa.
If you get the chance also to see this with Text of Light (on a cinema screen, with them playing live), it's doubly amazing. Great show, great filmmaker, great musicians.
Me and my fat friends on minimum wage like to watch BB while drinking cider and smoking mayfairs. We don't really care about it, we just hope somebody will get naked. Then we talk about football for a while then we go for chips at the chicken shop while we worry about the constantly rising price of ikea furniture.
@masterxak well, I have nothing against hipsters ahah, anyway..dont think stan was a hipi, but an authentic and brilliant craftsman. its a collage with real wings, petals n all.. its not even filmed man. it took him ages to carefully print it. that was a never done before crazy idea. and still one of the best metaphor of the moving image so far, dead as soon as grasped. if u dont agree, I dont f* care. this quality sux but the original is pure music.
u'r right!! I've already answered tons of complains..the horrid media artifact is youtube. but take it as an input. go and try 2 see it on a cinema screen, like a moth to a flame (this is how I've seen it first). mothlight is not just a brilliantly crafted film, but a metaphor of Vision, of Cinema
well, all those 'cool' and 'cutting edge' effects you see nowadays on modern video/cinema production like bursts of light, scratched film, cutaways, etc. (and I can mention you hundreds of movies, tv credits, videoclips, etc. that make use of them) have been DIRECTLY influenced by the amazing works of Brakhage.
in my last H&A:Animation class we screened Brakhage's "Garden of Earthly Delights"....after it was done we got into a discussion on whether or not it was animation...i guess it depends on one's definition of "animation" and the process which Brakhage took to create the film
Brakhage used innovative materials to make images in ways that did not depend on how cameras were typically designed and used by the commercial film industries. This action is not merely artistically innovative; it is a political act that resists "the authority ... of industrial mediation," that is to say, capitalism.
@MrMeddled Just because something reminds you of some stereotype of "art house" or "avant-garde" or something (likely a stereotype it had a part in creating in the first place), doesn't mean it's pretentious.
pretense is maybe an outward manifestation of creativity in process, though sometimes an end in itself perhaps? Did you ever make a fort with blankets and chairs? Maybe whoever happened to be watching you thought of this as pretense? Maybe you were really living in that place?
@saravlinder the film is interesting as it draws attention to whats in the projector but it is by no means a "good film" like many people claiming it brilliant. anyone that says it is is either stuck up or a hipster. if you want to see a great experimental film that shows life through new perspective watch any film where someone tied a camera to their cat. it accomplishes everything this does with perspective, and is actually entertaining. all this does is play with the medium and thats about it
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Stop it! Stop making sense. They don't want to hear that. They just want to celebrate anyone who does the things they cannot, even if it's student-level nonsense.
if you like this kind of filmmaking theres a new collection of similar stuff by other directors around the same time just released by the national film preservation foundation. but its not everyones cup of tea.........
I think that this doesn't translate well to the internet. The point of a Brakhage film is to watch it as a film. So the soundtrack of the film is the sound of the film running through the projector. So that the light coming through the film is projected onto the screen, flickering as only a projector does. Mothlight is an epic film, important in a multitude of ways, if you ever get a chance screen it in a theater.
It is a silent piece not soundtracked but I this was ripped from a 16mm projection and this is the sound of the 16mm Mylar layers passing through the projector.. I think it’s more “authentic” than a silent digital version though!
You really need to see it in it's proper version on film, youtube doesn't give it any justice. I watched it on a big screen from a DVD and the quality showed a lot more detail. One of the reasons I appreciate it is because I know how much work and detail has gone into this trying to recreate my own.
what is so incredible about this video, I don't get it, and just to let you know I have nothing against abstract art or film, but this is just a bunch of mothwings on empty celluloid. I don't get it, please enlighten me.
