By Brakhage: An Anthology [2 Discs] [Criterion Collection]

Stan Brakhage

Overview

The works of Stan Brakhage, one of America's most influential and original experimental filmmakers, finally make their way onto home video in this superb anthology from The Criterion Collection, where they've been given a caring presentation on DVD. The 26 short films on By Brakhage: An Anthology have been transferred to disc in their original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Most of the films are silent, and the few with sound have little, if any, appreciable dialogue; the audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono, with no multiple language options. Bonus materials include several short "video encounters" with Brakhage, who discusses his work and his philosophies; thoughts on several of the films from the director; and short descriptions and a new essay from Brakhage scholar Fred Camper.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/21/2010
UPC:	0715515014021
Original Release:	2003
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	4:03:00
Sales rank:	3,848

Special Features

New high-definition digital transfers of all 26 films; Video encounters with the filmmaker; Reflections on selected films by Stan Brakhage; New essay and film capsules by Brakhage expert Fred Camper; Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

Menu

Side #1 --
   Play
   Index
      Desistfilm
         Play
         Remarks
      Wedlock House: An Intercourse
         Play
         Remarks
      Dog Star Man
         Prelude
         Part 1
         Part 2
         Part 3
         Part 4
         Play All
         Remarks
      The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes
         Play
         Remarks
   Encounter
      Brakhage on Brakhage 1
      Brakhage on Brakhage 2
      Play All
   Color Bars
Side #2 --
   Play
   Index
      Cat's Cradle
         Play
      Window Water Baby Moving
         Play
         Remarks
      Mothlight
         Play
         Remarks
      Eye Myth
         Play
         Remarks
      The World Shadow
         Play
         Remarks
      The Garden of Earthly Delights
         Play
      The Stars are Beautiful
         Play
         Remarks
      Kindering
         Play
         Remarks
      I...Dreaming
         Play
         Remarks
      The Dante Quartet
         Play
         Remarks
      Nightmusic
         Play
      Rage Net
         Play
         Remarks
      Glaze of Cathexis
         Play
         Remarks
      Delicacies of Molton Horror Synapse
         Play
         Remarks
      Untitled (For Marilyn)
         Play
         Remarks
      Black Ice
         Play
         Remarks
      Study in Color and Black and White
         Play
      Stellar
         Play
         Remarks
      Crack Glass Eulogy
         Play
      The Dark Tower
         Play
      Commingled Containers
         Play
         Remarks
      Love Song
         Play
   Encounter
      Brakhage on Brakhage 3
      Brakhage on Brakhage 4
      Play All

Editorial Reviews

Bursting perceptual dams and the boundaries of what could be committed to celluloid, the films of the avant-garde titan Stan Brakhage cover virtually every event in human perception from birth to death -- and everything in between. His manipulations of image and light in his 400-some films have served and continue to influence countless artists, mainstream and otherwise. Now the innovator's 26 most fantastic films have been gathered for By Brakhage: An Anthology, titled after the director's famous title card "signature," often scratches made directly onto the film. Compiled shortly before the director's death in 2003, the DVD set is a sublime, mind-blowing, and meditative experience that is indispensable for anyone interested in American experimental cinema. Sampling all phases of Brakhage's career, the innumerable highlights include: Dog Star Man, the wild rite of passage of the solitary artist made manifest through superimpositions, highly personal handheld camerawork, scratching on film and repetition of sequences; Mothlight and The Garden of Earthly Delights, two astonishing camera-less films created by affixing wings, leaves, and various objects directly onto celluloid with Mylar tape; Window Water Baby Moving, a poetic, graphic, revelatory visual diary of the pregnancy of Brakhage's wife Jane; and The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes, wherein an autopsy shot by Brakhage in a Pittsburgh morgue opens up a world that is as cosmically graphic as it is infinitely sympathetic. Among the package's modest supplements, which include an interview with the filmmaker, is an essay by film critic and Brakhage aficionado Fred Camper. He describes a jolt of turbulence that occurred during a flight around the time of the filmmaker's death, comparing it to sudden a vacuum of air caused by the passing of a life so grand.

Barnes & Noble - Eddy Crouse