Category Archives: POETIC NONSENSE

Poetry by Lawrence R. Spencer. Poetic nonsense by Lawrence R. Spencer and others. Haiku poems by Lawrence R. Spencer.

...and other stuff, ART, MOVING PICTURES, POETIC NONSENSE, UNIVERSES

BREATHLESS IN 524 FRAMES PER SECOND

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“Experimental film maker Gerard Courant has taken Jean-Luc Godard’s classic  French film from 1960,  Breathless, and sped up it (or compressed it as he prefers to call it) into a four minute movie.

The French title of Godard’s debut film is À bout de souffle which translates to English as “out of breath.” Courant’s compression is most likely a play on the title.

What I find interesting about the compression is the way it brings Godard’s style and the American noir films he was inspired by to the foreground. The nervous energy of the film, the pans and tracking shots, cigarettes smoked, automobiles in motion, zooms, jump-cuts, and close-ups, all create an angular yet fluid motion that seems driven by forces of destiny – the movie is tumbling into a dark void of betrayal and its opposite – yin and yanging to the beat beat beat of a heart in the throes of atrial tachycardia. No time to catch your breath – you’re breathless.

Fucking with Godard’s masterpiece is very Godardian.  If, as Godard claims, “cinema is truth at 24 frames per second” what is cinema at 524 frames per second”

— va Dangerous Minds

ART, LIVES, POETIC NONSENSE, UNIVERSES

VISIT TO PICASSO

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I own a video cassette copy of a film (The Mystery of Picasso) showing Pablo Picasso painting on a plate of glass, filmed from the opposite side.  As an oil painter myself, I found it utterly mesmerizing!  I was delighted when I found an earlier film on YouTube (in 2 parts below) showing similar footage of Picasso at work in his studio sixty-three year ago, in 1949.  (This film is nearly as old as I am!)

Visit to Picasso is a Belgian documentary film from 1949 directed by Belgian filmmaker Paul Haesaerts. In an effort to capture the nature of Picasso’s creative process, Paul Haesaerts asked the Spanish painter to apply his magical brushstrokes to large glass plates as Haesaerts filmed from the other side. This actually predates the more famous art film The Mystery of Picasso (1956) by Henri-Georges Clouzot in which Picasso also paints to large transparent canvases as the director films from the other side. The filming took place in Picasso’s studio in Vallauris. In 1951 Visit to Picasso was nominated for best documentary by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).  Even if you are not an artist or art connoisseur, you may appreciate this film.

Vivre la vie avec un esprit de l’art de!