1935 Review of Oskar Fischinger

story © Michael Betancourt | published November 14, 2013 | permalink |  |  

The Last of the Mohicans: Oskar Fischinger’s “Symphony in Blue”

Rough translation of review originally published by FilmLiga, 15 November 1935, pp. 314-315

(314)​That the avant-garde as “movement” is dead no one will dare to doubt. They broke with confidence that a good-death are venturing with all sides the staff about her, and more or less officially has her first partisans agree “with the grave of the filmmaker” the deceased commemorated in FilmLiga. For us, that the avant-garde movement very dear have stood, falling from the contradiction of the judgments to ascertaining down two basic facts: first, that the “movement” within the limits of its experimental nature so useful and invaluable services has proven to aesthetics of the film that we miss only considering her labor at the stage of sound film. Second: that its continued existence, independently, was impossible purely due to reasons of the sound film at least, so it seemed. . . .

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story © Michael Betancourt | published October 21, 2013 | permalink |  |  

The silent film actress Mae Murray, known as the “girl with bee-stung lips,” appears in fancy dress, pouting and flirting with the audience. Hers is an archetypal image of white feminine beauty from the start of the twentieth century, a form that was already old when the source film was shot in 1922, here glitched and fragmented—yet remaining coherently recognizable throughout this movie. The music is from a vintage 1920 recording of inventor, visual music pioneer, and symphony piano soloist Mary Hallock-Greenewalt playing Chopin’s Nocturne in G Major.

story © Michael Betancourt | published October 9, 2013 | permalink |  |  

This movie follows the development of a revelatory experience from a 'parting of the veil' into the emergence of a new landscape where the 'distractions of physicality' are replaced by the 'numinous encounter' and beyond.

story © Michael Betancourt | published September 11, 2013 | permalink |  |  

OtherZine 25 has my article on making Dancing Glitch where I discuss how recognizing glitches depends on the audience, not what was done to/in making the work.

story © Michael Betancourt | published August 23, 2013 | permalink |  |  

My new article discussing the titles for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is online today at Bright Lights Film Journal.

The glitch and other details of his first on-screen credit distinguish Lardani's title card from the rest of the sequence in a very dramatic way — unlike the other titles, which are immediately obvious as credits, it is possible to miss his credit entirely, a strange distinction to choose given his role and, according to his son, complete freedom in creating the design. It is almost as if his title card is hidden in plain sight.