From: David Tetzlaff (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Feb 15 2010 - 11:53:43 PST
I have seen Hapax all in one day (though not w/o a break). I don't
know if 4-7 are ever screened w/o 1-3. Maybe I just didn't get it, but
I found 4-7 pretty unengaging and at times excruciating.
With 3 dics, I'm actually not really worried the stuff I really care
about will be left out (Hapax 1-3, Zorns Lemma, Gloria). It's just
that based on what little other HF if seen, I'm guessing I'd find more
to appreciate in some of the stuff I'm not familiar with yet than the
ones I have seen but couldn't connect to.
My interpretation of Frampton may be different from the norm - I think
Fred and I argued about it here once - but I think there's a richness
in the major works that opens them to a lot of different readings, and
I haven't seen that in the second half of Hapax.
I wasn't complaining seriously, and I guess I'll withdraw my threat to
off myself. I do however have several very cute puppies I will torture
if Criterion changes their mind.
Thanks Marilyn, for your explanation about Anticipation. None of us
can fault anyone for showing consideration to Pip, who graciously
provides this forum for us and works so hart to support the work we
care about.
The fact remains, though, that the RE:VOIR version of Anticipation is
only available in PAL, only on VHS, and does not seem to be
distributed in the US. All of these seriously limit the work's
accessibility to the broad audience it deserves (spare me 'rent the
print' posts, we're already comparing video sales to video sales.) If
you're trying to explain Brakhage to anyone, as part of a class, or
just informally, how do you NOT talk about the ideas from Metaphors
and Vision, and then illustrate the move away from representation to
hypnogogic vision in Anticipation? If you have what comes before (I
really love Way to Shadow Garden from Treasures 4 as a precursor) and
what comes after (DSM and on) but leave out the hole in the middle, it
just seems to me like you cripple the attempt to get the big picture
of Brakhage's aesthetic project. And since I think that big picture is
really fascinating, I think that's a damn shame.
So, Pip:
If we've established that Criterion isn't going to step on your toes,
would it kill you to issue Anticipation on DVD (it being much much
easier to playback PAL dvds in the US than PAL VHS) and put it for
sale on this side of the pond (with somebody other than Jon Gartenberg
-- no offense to Jon but I'd like my own copy and I don't have a trust
fund)?
I'm sure that, as with RE:VOIR's Deren DVD, Pip would be his usual
meticulous self in making sure the encoding and authoring minimized
all those MPEG2 bugaboos (that I can't see anyway on well-authored
titles like By Brakhage). Would this not do the world a service, and
maybe even make some money for RE:VOIR?
FRAMEWORKER's please chime in if you agree....
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.