Walden (1968 film)
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jonas Mekas |
Produced by | Jonas Mekas |
Narrated by | Jonas Mekas |
Cinematography | Jonas Mekas |
Edited by | Jonas Mekas |
Distributed by | The Film-Makers' Cooperative |
Release date |
|
Running time | 177 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Walden, originally titled Diaries, Notes and Sketches (also known as Walden),
Description
Walden is divided into four sections. It shows a chronicle of events in Mekas's life, with intertitles describing the images that precede or follow them. The soundtrack alternates between music, narration by Mekas, and environmental sounds.[2]
The scenes show social visits with friends as well as various social events, such as weddings.[1] Many famous figures of the American avant-garde make appearances in the film.[3]
Production
Principal photography
Mekas shot Walden on a
Mekas's cinematography differs sharply from the style of
Post-production
As Mekas continued to film over the years, financial constraints limited his ability to make completed films. The Albright–Knox Art Gallery commissioned him to make a film for a celebration it was planning. The gallery gave him ten months to complete the project, with a small grant of around $2,000.[1][2]
Musician John Cale recorded some background music for the film. Mekas doubled the speed of Cale's recording and used it for a 15-minute segment in Walden. While editing, he played vinyl records, a radio, and televisions in various combinations so that he could seize any opportunity to record interesting music for the film. He used the film stocks' different tints as a way to structure some of the sequences based on color.[1]
Mekas continued editing the film after the premiere and added additional material, using about a third of all the footage he had shot.[1] He finished working on it in 1969.[2]
Themes
Mekas titled his film after Thoreau's
To me Walden exists throughout the city. You can reduce the city to your own small world which others may never see. The usual reaction to seeing Walden is a question: "Is this New York?" Their New York is ugly buildings and depressing, morbid blocks of concrete and glass…In my New York there is a lot of nature. Walden is made up of bits of memories of what I wanted to see. I eliminated what I didn't want to see.
The film is dedicated to the
Release
Before the invitation from the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Mekas began distributing four short films based on the same footage: Cassis, Notes on the Circus, Report from Millbrook, and Hare Krishna. Different versions of Cassis and Report from Millbrook appear in Walden.[1]
As part of the Buffalo Festival of the Arts Today, Mekas premiered the first cut of Walden at the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in March 1968, before producing the longer final cut.
Re:Voir released Walden on VHS in 2003, along with The Walden Book. The book contains a scene-by-scene outline of the original cut of the film.[12] Kino Lorber released the film on Blu-ray in November 2015.[13]
Critical reception
Contemporary reaction to Walden was positive. Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that "Mekas has a remarkable gift for making us see, as if for the first time, what we've been looking at all our lives."[14]
Critic Dave Kehr said that Walden "radiates sociability and warmth…Innocent of technique, it overflows with truth."[15] J. Hoberman wrote that Mekas's camera technique was a breakthrough that "freed [him] from both conventional film technique and narrative restraint."[13]
Notes
- ^ JSTOR 778308.
- ^ .
- Cineaste. Vol. 42, no. 1. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
- ^ Taubin, Amy (May 2005). "Footage Fetish". Artforum. Vol. 43, no. 9. p. 45. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-520-22738-5.
- ISBN 978-0-19-063220-5.
- ISBN 978-1-86020-004-5.
- ^ O'Hagan, Sean (December 2, 2012). "Mixing It with Dali, Warhol and Kennedy". The Observer. p. 14. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
- ^ "Essential Cinema". Anthology Film Archives. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
- ^ Leland, John (October 18, 2015). "Growing Old, Yes, but Refusing to Fade". The New York Times. p. L1. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
- ^ "Walden AKA: Diaries, Notes and Sketches". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
- The Moving Image. 6 (2): 149.
- ^ a b Hoberman, J. (November 15, 2015). "Avant-garde Autobiography". The New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (January 18, 1970). "Digging Under Ground". The New York Times. p. 81. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
- ^ Kehr, Dave (November 22, 2009). "Advance Troops of Cinema, Marching Through Time". The New York Times. p. L17. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
External links
- Walden at the Film-Makers' Cooperative
- Walden at IMDb