Wavelength (1967 film)
Wavelength | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Snow |
Written by | Michael Snow |
Starring | Hollis Frampton Roswell Rudd Amy Taubin Joyce Wieland Amy Yadrin |
Cinematography | Michael Snow |
Edited by | Michael Snow |
Release date |
|
Running time | 45 minutes |
Countries | Canada United States |
Language | English |
Wavelength is a 1967 Canadian-American
Wavelength is often listed as one of the
Synopsis
Wavelength consists of almost no action, and what action does occur is largely
Around the end, one can hear what sound like police sirens, but could just as well be a part of the
Cast
- Hollis Frampton
- Lyne Grossman
- Naoto Nakazawa
- Roswell Rudd
- Amy Taubin
- Joyce Wieland
- Amy Yadrin
Structure
According to P. Adams Sitney, the trend in American avant-garde cinema during the late 1940s and 1950s (such as the work of Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage) was towards "increased complexity".[9] Since the mid-1960s, filmmakers such as Michael Snow, Hollis Frampton, Paul Sharits, Tony Conrad and Joyce Wieland produced works where simplicity was foregrounded. Sitney labeled this tendency "structural film." The four characteristics of structural film are "fixed camera position…the flicker effect, loop printing, and rephotography off the screen."[10] Sitney describes Snow as the "dean of structural film-makers" who "utilizes the tension" of Wavelength's use of a "fixed-frame and…the flexibility of the fixed tripod".[10] Where Sitney describes structural film as a "working process," Stephen Heath in Questions of Cinema finds Wavelength "seriously wanting" in that the "implied…narrative [makes Wavelength] in some ways a retrograde step in cinematic form".[11] To Heath, the principal theme of Wavelength is the "question of the cinematic institution of the subject of film" rather than the apparatus of filmmaking itself.[12]
In 2003, Snow released WVLNT (or Wavelength For Those Who Don't Have the Time), a shorter (1/3 of the original time) and significantly altered version by overlaying multiple forms of the original film upon itself.[13]
Reception and legacy
The screening of Wavelength in 1967 was, according to filmmaker
[G]iven the film's
The film won the Grand Prix at the 1967 Knokke Experimental Film Festival,
Wavelength ranked 102nd in the 2012
Distribution
- Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre
- Art Metropole[21]
See also
References
- ^ "Few filmmakers have had as large an impact on the recent avant-garde film scene as Canadian Michael Snow, whose Wavelength is probably the most frequently discussed 'structural' film." Scott MacDonald, "So Is This by Michael Snow" Film Quarterly Vol. 39, No. 1 (Autumn, 1985): 34.
- ^ P. Adams Sitney, Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943-1978. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979 p. 375
- ^ Sitney pp. 368-397
- ^ Sitney p. 374
- ^ "100 Best Films - Village Voice".
- ^ "Trust Blog".
- ^ Reprinted in Manny Farber, Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies, London: Studio Vista, 1971, p. 250
- ^ Robert Enright, "The Lord of Missed Rules: An Interview with Michael Snow" Border Crossings v. 26 no. 2 (May 2007): 22
- ^ Sitney, p. 369
- ^ a b Sitney, p. 370
- ^ Stephen Heath, Questions of Cinema, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981, p. 166
- ^ Heath, p. 129
- ^ "The density of Wavelength is foregrounded in Snow's own 'preemptive' digital version of the film, WVLNT or Wavelength For Those Who Don't Have the Time (2003), which divides the film into thirds and superimposes them into a fifteen-minute short. This point was made recently hy Bart Testa, in a 2007 SCMS paper, 'Michael Snow's Film Encyclopedias 1991-2005.' Michael Zryd, "Avant-Garde Films: Teaching Wavelength." Cinema Journal 47, Number 1 (Fall 2007): 111-112.
- ^ Enright, 23
- ^ Michael Zryd, "Avant-Garde Films: Teaching Wavelength" Cinema Journal Vol. 47 Issue 1 (Fall 2007): 111
- ^ a b Zryd, 110
- ^ "Knokke Experimental Film Festival (1967)". IMDb.
- ^ Jud Yalkut, "Wavelength by Michael Snow" Film Quarterly Vol. 21, No. 4 (Summer, 1968): 50
- ^ Gordon, Antony; Carpenter, John; Perr, Harvey; Apostolides, Alex; Skald; Ellison, Harlan; Hoffman, J. (14 December 1968). "Los Angeles Free Press: Los Angeles Free Press". 5 (230-Part Two).
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "Votes for Wavelength (1967)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
- ^ "ART METROPOLE :: Shop > WVLNT (Wavelength For Those Who Don't Have The Time) - Michael Snow". www.artmetropole.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
Bibliography
- Cornwell, Regina. Snow Seen: The Films and Photographs of Michael Snow. Toronto: PMA Books, 1980. ISBN 0-88778-197-7
- Elder, R. Bruce. Image and Identity: Reflections on Canadian Film and Culture. ISBN 0-88920-956-1
- Farber, Manny. Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies. London: Studio Vista, 1971. ISBN 0-289-70124-4
- Heath, Stephen. Questions of Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981. ISBN 0-253-15914-8
- Legge. Elizabeth. Michael Snow: Wavelength. Cambridge, MA: Afterall (One Work Series), 2009. ISBN 1-84638-055-3
- Michelson, Annette. "About Snow." October Vol. 8 (Spring, 1979): 111-125.
- Shedden, Jim (ed.) The Michael Snow Project: Presence and Absence (The Films of Michael Snow 1965-1991). Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 1995. ISBN 0-394-28106-3
- Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943-1978. New York: ISBN 0-19-502486-9
- Zryd, Michael. "Avant-Garde Films: Teaching Wavelength." Cinema Journal 47, Number 1 (Fall 2007): 109-112.
External links
- Wavelength at the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre
- Wavelength at IMDb
- Wavelength at Rotten Tomatoes
- Wavelength at AllMovie