shmi SNOW STORMS ITALY

THE BAFFLING WORKS OF CANADIAN DIRECTOR MICHAEL SNOW - ALCHEMIST OF THE MOVIE CAMERA MICHAEL SNOW'S CINEMA Inevitably, even in the news media, In his films he gives the sensation tastes and motivated preferences come of playing with the Veering' which into play. We, unlike many of our mism introduced previously develops gives tonality to color colleagues, will therefore stress the im­ and exceeds itself in the sense that it portance of the 'personal show' that the rejects the 'story' and the human ele­ Eighth International Festival of the New ment, concentrating exclusively on Corriere Adriatico - Perhaps Pinoc- Cinema at Pesaro, has dedicated to those three essential ingredients. It is a chio was not given birth to by the Michael Snow. first-rate piece of work that fuses ele­ fantasy of Collodi. Perhaps (in an event Snow is a Canadian, of whom we ments of architecture, sculpture, paint­ that would send all the principles of have written more than once in these ing and cinema in a combination dom­ gynaecology flying out the window) the pages, because wherever he goes his inated by various coherent rhythms, wooden puppet had a 'natural' birth. filn»s fascinate and disturb. He is 43 exquisitely interrelated in a superior What makes us suspect this is the film of years old, has a background in the vision. The only variable left is its a vanguard artist of the cinema, the plastic and figurative arts, and is consi­ length. However, it is inevitable, either Canadian Michael Snow, who - in a dered a reputable musician. Ten years in reference to its singular rhythms or to mute, five minute 'flash' — has shown us ago, through Jonas Mekas, he ap­ the universality of the whole. The in- how two chairs can shamelessly make proached the type of film that is com­ exhaustable preference for space and love. It is quite plausible, once two monly termed 'underground'. He discov­ time that constitutes the personal ele­ chairs' have given in to their 'resinous' ered the immense, practically limitless ment is characteristic of all the works. desires, that the fruit of their love be a possibiUties of this type of film that "The structure of this film" says Snow wooden log, like the one from which takes refuge in a codified and standard­ (and we cannot contest the fundamen­ Pinocchio was born. ized language. He also discovered that tals or the seriousness) "is somewhat A to Z is actually a cartoon that the too-customary distinction between classical, like a symphony, where a few flashes between the tonalities of two modes of expression (or, as it is inap­ themes are introduced at the beginning, colors; white and blue. Snow amuses, propriately used, of the arts) is without and a few in the variations. There are rather than surprises, us. But we will not meaning when brought to the personal movements repeated in varying tempos take on the responsibility of defining as level of expression. A not too excessive or combined with other movements. art a 'funny' piece of work, such as this series of films results - at Pesaro, 10 The film gives the impression of greater one. Another four minutes are spent in were presented, embracing practically movement at the beginning and at the Short Shave where Snow presents us all of his works - of which the culmin­ end; while in the middle, where the sky with the various possibilities for tricks. ating points were Wavelength made in predominates, it seems that the move­ New York Eye and Ear Control finally 1967, and La Region Centrale made in ment loses all its drajnatic quaUty, that enters the canons of better comprehen­ 1971. it comes closer to the way the planets sion: a woman's silhouette that does all We recorded the impressive exper­ actually move and that a longer time the things a normal woman would do, ience of the first film in these pages span passes. However, there is no mathe­ with one exception. 'Walking Woman' is when that singular work first appeared, matical or geometric type of structure, in reality a woman's silhouette cut off receiving recognition at the Belgian fest­ describable in those terms. There is, at the thighs. And finally Wavelength - ival of Knokke-le-Zoote. The film is an rather, a series of variations that ex­ a room decorated only in its essentials, extraordinary 'zoom' to an internal ploits every possible speed and combina­ and an incredibly slow zoom. Contin­ wall, articulated by four large windows, tion of rotary movement of the cam­ uous. Inexorable. Forty-five minutes of on the other side of which - with era." a tracking shot to end up swallowed by significant repetitions and in the most With this personal show on Michael the waves of the sea. banal fashion - life unwinds. Inside, Snow, Pesaro has brought a contribu­ Michael Snow can, without doubt, while the camera relentlessly closes in tion of extraordinary cultural interest, define himself as the alchemist of the on a small photograph hanging on the and has wisely continued the presenta­ camera. He plays with oscillations, giv­ wall (the zoom lasts for 45 minutes) the tion of the 'underground' which has ing tonality to color to the point of combination of Ughts, sounds, and a few already been in review for two editions. contrast. There can be no doubt that he words, creates sketches of human vicis­ After all, experimentation at Snow's is a vanguard artist. But forgive our situdes and hint at human drama. level or at the level of very few other narrow-mindedness, the cinema must In La Region Centrale - the auteur's lovers of the experimental cinema, are also be founded on a few 'classical' only feature-length film which reaches perhaps the most important in order to concepts, ft must not make such an the excessive duration of three hours - understand the aesthetic possibiUties of abrupt break with the past. the combination of space/light/dyna­ film-making.

Cinema Canada 63 The Camera at the Centre of the Universe Le Monde, Paris ~ How can one ask viewers, who have on the whole con­ cerned themselves only with 'the revolu­ tion' in Latin American and Japanese films, to look seriously at the extra­ ordinary cinematographic monument that this new film of more than three hours by the Canadian Michael Snow The ^ootn constitutes? No physical action, not even the presence of man, a fabulous game with nature and machine which puts into question our perceptions, our AT THE PESARO FILM FESTI­ Snow, 43 years old, Canadian, is an mental habits, and in many aspects VAL CANONS OF CONVEN­ offspring of the plastic arts, and of jazz. renders moribund existing cinema: the He began his training in the film indus­ latest Fellini, Kubrick, Bunuel, etc. TIONAL' CINEMA UNDER FIRE try at the famous cartoon studios of his Former painter and jazzman, Michael Michael Snow's personal show pre­ country. Later, he moved to New York, Snow at first worked in New York. In sently heads the Underground and in 1967 won his first international 1967, he was awarded the Grand Prize Movement award with Wavelength. His experiment­ at the Experimental Film Festival in L'Unita, Roma - In Toronto, they ation focusses on presenting reciprocal Knokke-Le-Zoute, Belgium for threw objects at the screen. In New identities of space and time in unusual Wavelength, a 45-minute zoom intercut York's Cinematheque, they tried to rip perspectives: more philosophic than vis­ with stops, with rare human appear­ the film from the projector. In Amster­ ual ("The meaning", says Snow, "is not ances, accompanied by a synchronized dam, they wanted to destroy the thea­ on the screen.") Consequently, the most sound that immediately exerts its tre. These were the reactions from some conventional factor in cinema — the power of brute fascination. In 1969 <=> of the public seven or eight years ago to image, rather, the moving image - is (Back and Forth) appeared, 50 minutes the experimental films of Michael Snow. subordinated to completely new propor­ of pure movement, two thirds of it a But, says the director, "They were more tions of another kind. Music is no longer pendulum-like movement from left to violent then." In Pesaro today, before considered 'a musical comment', but a right and back again, one third of the the ten films that made up the complete precise and irreplaceable 'happening'. movement executed vertically. All our works of Snow were shown, the protests The rapidity of filming, the rotation of perception is upset. were sporadic and isolated. At the end, color, the contemplated scenery, the For La Region Centrale, shot with the applause overwhelmed the notes of human figure and the one-dimensional more substantial means ($28,000 from dissent, although the spectators left figure, the voice that becomes sound the Canadian Film Development Corp.), thoroughly tested for having tried to and sound that becomes voice — all this Michael Snow had a special camera follow spasmodic and unusual lines of is taken to such a Umit, that at times it constructed by a technician in Montreal, logic. The Underground in Italy is avail­ seems unbearable precisely because it is a camera capable of moving in all able to few, and followed by very few. absolutely real: the duration of a sunset directions: horizontally, vertically, later­ Only its eccentricities are known, but its the crossing of a room, the wailing of a ally or in a spiral. The film is one course has never been mapped. Never­ siren. Snow reflects an original way of uninterrupted movement across space, theless, in "Diversa America", where it thinking in his presentation. Certain inter-cutting regularly the X serving as a was born (not solely in the States and poses of immobility are quite evidently point of reference and permitting one to not solely by Americans) it has already presented for provocation, in that they take hold of stable reality. Michael reached the second generation. Snow's frustrate the expected waiting period Snow has chosen to film a deserted 1971 La Region Centrale has by now ihat the audience is used to in 'conven­ region, without the least trace of human replaced that other vanguard movement tional' film; by imagining the play of life, 100 miles to the north of Sept-Iles of nearly ten years ago - the art of objects, places and subjective points of in the province of Quebec: a sort of 'seeing' of Stan Brakhage (even then it view; where the 'conventional' film's plateau without trees, opening onto a was thanks to the Pesaro Film Festival attention tends to relax or distract. vast circular perspective of surrounding that we learned of it). - Tino Ranieri mountains. In the first frames, the camera disen­ gages itself slowly from the ground in a circular movement. Progressively the MANY c ™ ''^^^^^^ EXPER/MENT.o^ ^' space fragments, vision inverts in every sense, Ught everywhere dissolves appear­ ance. We become insensible accomplices to a sort of cosmic movement. A sound track rigorously synchronized, com­ posed from the original sound which programmed the camera, supplies a per­ cT manent counterpoint. Michael Snow pushes toward the ^ absurd the essential nature of this ^ 'seventh art' which is endlessly repeated as being above all visual. He catapults us to the heart of a world before speech, ^^ before arbitrarily imposed meanings, •V'^TH UNSeS TH^T ROTATE .flrf , even subject. He forces us to rethink not <^ 360 DEGREES ^'O only cinema, but our universe. -Louis Marcorelles

Cincnui (";in;idj (i4 Pesaro = Snow wins the Bet ~

but he doesn't care!

HE PRESENTS A FILM TO PRO­ VOKE THE AUDIENCE - THAT MUST, FOR 40 MINUTES, PUT UP WITH LOOKING AT A SINGLE SHOT INSIDE A ROOM

Snow^s exasperating films at Pesaro A FILM SHOT IN A ROOM WITH A 45 MINUTE ZOOM TO A PHOTO REPRESENTING WAVES, PLACED ON THE OP­ POSITE WALL

His contribution must be ranked with the great scientific and artistic geniuses...

ALBERT AYLER DON CHERRY AT THE PESARO FILM FESTIVAL JOHN TCHICAI

CANONS OF CONVENTIONAL' ROSWELL RUDD CINEMA UNDER FIRE GARY PEACOCK SONNY MURRAY

EYE AMD EAR C NiR ' Translated by Gabriella Dobson

Cinema Canada 65