Experimental Question

Discuss some of the ways in which the film or video work you have studied for this topic requires a different kind of spectatorship from that which spectators bring to their mainstream film-going.

It is argued that experimental films are easy to write about as they are difficult to understand. I agree with this statement. I personally find that expanded films such as 'Un Chien Andalou' and 'Stellar' are much more challenging to watch than mainstream films such as 'Titanic', or 'Transformers'.

Un Chien Andalou was made in 1929 by filmmaker Luis Bunuel. The film is primarily based on dreams that he and Salvador Dali had experienced, and it often has no meaning at all. The piano scene shows how abstract the film is, as the male character is shown by a series of static long shots dragging 2 grand pianos with dead donkeys draped across them. This scene confused me on first viewing and the image stuck in my head as it was so vivid. I found it disgusting as I did not expect a scene so graphic in a time period such as the 20s. The confused effect is added to by the non-diegetic music which I found particularly annoying as it was repetitive, high pitched and constant.

My responses to Titanic differ greatly to that of Un Chien Andalou. Directed by James Cameron in 1997, it had a huge budget and Cameron even had a replica of the unsinkable vessel built into a massive custom studio. Despite the money and world class actors, I found the film incredibly boring. I find it to be too slow, and although the story of the Titanic does interest me, the film carries too much of a love story. Even with a second viewing my opinion does not change.

An experimental film that I do like is Stellar, by Stan Brakhage. It is a short film with no sound, made entirely of flashing images. Brakhage painted on each individual frame individually using different colours. There are no significant camera shots or techniques used in the film, which is why I find it appealing. When the film is played it creates a vibrant show of colours and shapes which I really like, and I appreciate the amount of work and time Brakhage put into this short film. On my first viewing I found myself completely fixated on the film even though it is silent and incredibly simple. Although Brakhage is American, I think he has a very European style to his films, as shown in 'The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes' which depicts autopsys. It has an extremely blunt and harsh style, showing me highly graphic images of corpses being dissected for examination.

This style is also evident in the work of the Quay brothers, who are also American but have an clear European style. Their film