Wikipedia article
'The Wold Shadow' is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, produced in 1972.
Production
'The Wold Shadow' was inspired when Stan Brakhage, while walking through a forest, had a vision of an anthropomorphic shadow.[[http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2004/cteq/the_wold_shadow/ "The Wold Shadow" by Martin Rumsby] 'Senses of Cinema,' CTEQ Annotations, 26 July 2004 - accessed August 11, 2011] The experience led him to film a homage to the "god of the forest."[ 'The Wold Shadow' was produced by placing glass on an easel between his camera and the forest. Between each individual frame, Brakhage painted on the glass, before repeating this process.][Elder, R. Bruce (1998) 'The films of Stan Brakhage in the American tradition of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and Charles Olson,' Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, p190] Production of 'The Wold Shadow' took a full day.[ Brakhage credits the film with reigniting his interest in painting,][Scott MacDonald (2005) 'A critical cinema: interviews with independent filmmakers,' University of California Press, p100] and described his choice of title as follows:
"Wold" because the word refers to "forests" which poets later made "plains" and because the work also contains the rustic sense "to kill" - this then my laboriously painted vision of the god of the forest.[[http://canyoncinema.com/catalog/film/?i=504 The Wold Shadow] Canyon Cinema: Film, Accessed August 11, 2011]
Reception
Martin Rumsby cites 'The Wold Shadow' as a rare instance of Brakhage attempting a work of structural cinema in 'Senses of Cinema'.[ He nevertheless acknowledges that the film is more "romantic" than most structural films, in that Brakhage is "trying to capture or evoke something mysterious and unknowable."][ P. Adams Sitney considers 'The Wold Shadow' a continuation of themes expressed in the poetry of Ezra Pound.][P. Adams Sitney (2006) "Brakhage and Modernism," 'Masterpieces of Modernist Cinema,' Indiana University Press, p172]
See also
* List of American films of 1972
References
|