Back and Forth (film)
<---> (AKA Back and Forth) | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Snow |
Starring | Allan Kaprow |
Edited by | Michael Snow |
Release date |
|
Running time | 52 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
<---> (alternative title Back and Forth) is a 1969 structural film by Canadian director Michael Snow. Shot in and outside a classroom at the Madison, New Jersey campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University, the camera pans and tilts with varying frequency.[1]
Content
The first section shows a
The second section uses a tilt, which shows the room from floor to ceiling. Over this section’s duration, the tilts gradually decelerate.
A
The final section
Production
A title card appearing in the film reads:
This film was shot at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, N.J. in July 1968. Editing and recording were completed in January 1969 in New York. Appearing in the film are: Allan Kaprow, Emmett Williams, Max Neuhaus, Terri Marsala, Donna Aughey, Joyce Wieland, Luis Camnitzer, George Murphy, Susan, Ay-O, Dr. Gordon, Liba Bayrak, Annie Scotty, Mary, Mac, students from the H.E.P. Program and others. Nearby were Nancy Graves, Richard Serra, John Giorno, Paul Ide, Alison Knowles, Jud Yalkut and many others—film stock was Ektachrome 7257, camera: Bolex H16 with Kinotar 12.7 lens. Recording was by Darvin Studio and prints by Filmtronics (New York). Available from New York Film-Makers' Cooperative, 175 Lexington.
Cast
Reception
Manny Farber, writing in the January 1970 issue of Artforum, commented on the work's sculptural effects: "Basically it's a perpetual motion film that ingeniously builds a sculptural effect by insisting on time-motion to the point where the camera's swinging arcs and white wall field assume the hardness, the dimensions of a concrete beam."[3] Farber went on to single out the soundtrack's use of percussion as a sculptural element: "In such a hard, drilling work, the wooden clap sounds are a terrific invention, and, as much as any single element, create the sculpture. Seeming to thrust the image outward off the screen, these clap effects are timed like a metronome, sometimes occurring with torrential frequency.”
Gene Youngblood, in the January 2–8, 1970, edition of the Los Angeles Free Press, regarded Back and Forth as an expansion of cinema's narrative parameters: ". . . in 'Back and Forth,' Snow was able to completely suffuse form with content, while not relinquishing the traditional elements of characterization and acting."[4] Writing in The Monthly Film Bulletin, for September 1976, Jonathan Rosenbaum similarly addressed the film's use of characterization: "Although a man crosses the visual field in the opening shot, and people are glimpsed at intervals throughout, their presence comprises not the subject but the counterpoint of a physical process defined by the continual panning motion of the camera."[5]
References
- ISBN 9780889202436.
- ^ Back and Forth (Motion picture). Event occurs at 45:30. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- ^ Farber, Manny. "Wavelength, Standard Time, and One Second in Montreal". artforum.com. Artforum. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
- ^ Youngblood, Gene. "Snow: Time and Art". voices.revealdigital.org. Reveal Digital. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan. "Back and Forth (1976 Review)". jonathanrosenbaum.net. Jonathan Rosenbaum. Retrieved 2 May 2020.