by Brakhage: An Anthology: 2 DVD5 Set

Disc one has four films all of which have 'actors' in them. The films on this disc are a bit more difficult for new viewers of Brakhage to appreciate. The first is Desistfilm (1954), which consists of a group of teens hanging out in a house smoking, drinking, playing around and involves a lot of quick shifting camera movements and edits. Next is Wedlock House: An Intercourse (1959), which in succession shows Stan and his then wife Jane talking (or fighting) in a room with a single source light swaying back and forth alternated with negative shots of them making love.

Next up is Dog Star Man (1961 – 1964), which is Brakhage's epic film and consists of a prelude and four parts. This film is perhaps Brakhage's most widely known work and seen by itself can be a wonderful introduction to many aspects of his work including use of color, light, editing structure and super impositions to comment upon the nature of birth, sex, love, nature, thought, life and death: in short 'the whole shebang'.

The last film on this disc is The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (1971), which is a very difficult film to watch because all 31 minutes of it deal with autopsies. The film has been known to make people feel faint due to its stark reality, morgue setting and the cutting into dead, human flesh. Watch it with care.

Disc Two has 22 films 12 of which are painted films. The non-painted ones include two of his best Cat's Cradle a super fast edited work bathed in a red hues that features four people and a cat and Window Water Baby Moving, which features his first wife Jane before, during and after a home birth of their first child. It's almost an ethnographic home movie except for the fact that the editing structure is so musical. There is also The Stars are Beautiful a curious film with voice-over of creation myths and images of children with a chicken. There are also two collage films that don't use film: Mothlight (1963) mentioned earlier and The Garden of Earthly Delights, which used vegetation from the montane zone in the place of scratches and paint.

I can't say enough about the hand painted films which include, among others:
Eye Myth (1972) an image of a man trapped in paint, The Dante Quartet Brakhage's translation of Dante (1987), Rage Net (1988) about the anger of divorce, Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse (1991), about the horrors and pleasures of television, Black Ice (1994) about falling and blindness, Dark Tower (1999) about all the dark towers of literature and Love Song (2001) about the experience of sex.

In each of these colorful films Brakhage attempts to approximate metaphors for seeing and what is called hypnagogic vision - that is closed eye vision, dream vision and/or memory feedback. This type of vision is associated with closed eye vision (close your eyes and see what your missing). In these films multiple swirling colors glide, rush, and leap by to an inspired, resonate visual beat. As a point of reference, I would say they are not unlike moving paintings in the vein of Kandinski and Pollack.

If you feel the need (and you're not a purist) you can slow down the DVD to a slower speed (an 1/8th speed is good) or pause and scroll through each amazing frame of his hand painted films. These are films you can watch again and again and always get a new perspective, perceive a new angle, or see a different variation whirl across your vision.

<Disc Features>
* Two-disc set includes new high-definition digital transfers of all the following films, approved by Stan Brakhage:

* The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes
* Black Ice
* Cat’s Cradle
* Commingled Containers
* Crack Glass Eulogy
* The Dante Quartet
* The Dark Tower
* Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse
* Desistfilm
* Dog Star Man
* Eye Myth
* For Marilyn
* The Garden of Earthly Delights
* I…Dreaming
* Kindering
* Love Song
* Mothlight
* The Stars are Beautiful
* Stellar
* Study in color and Black and White
* Three hand-painted films: Nightmusic; Rage Net; Glaze of Cathexis
* Wedlock House: An Intercourse
* Window Water Baby Moving
* The Wold Shadow
* Interview with the filmmaker
* Essay by Brakhage expert Fred Camper


<Disc one>
http://rapidshare.com/files/230780220/By_Brakhage_1.part23.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/230790900/By_Brakhage_1.part09.rar
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http://rapidshare.com/files/230849251/By_Brakhage_1.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/230860304/By_Brakhage_1.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/230873029/By_Brakhage_1.part13.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/230886960/By_Brakhage_1.part17.rar
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http://rapidshare.com/files/231087406/By_Brakhage_1.part02.rar
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http://rapidshare.com/files/231589262/By_Brakhage_1.part36.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/231597929/By_Brakhage_1.part37.rar

<Disc two>
http://rapidshare.com/files/231662786/by_Brakhage_2.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/231675938/by_Brakhage_2.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/231691334/by_Brakhage_2.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/231707141/by_Brakhage_2.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/231723716/by_Brakhage_2.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/231741120/by_Brakhage_2.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/231760488/by_Brakhage_2.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/231823050/by_Brakhage_2.part09.rar
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