Utter Confusion

Last week was my first real exposure to true avant-garde cinema. While the pieces we viewed were certainly distinctive, they did not exactly have me sitting on the edge of my seat. The first three films we saw were interesting, but I feel like watching one would have sufficed. Seeing all of them was a little on the repetitive side. In all honesty, I was quite bemused by most of the lengthier films. For instance, Germaine Dulac’s “Coquielle et le clergy man” was almost exasperatingly confusing to me. The unexpected grotesque opening completely caught me off guard, and I couldn’t really follow the action. When Dr. Langston described the movie as a twisted almost pornographic piece, I was baffled. I thought that the beginning part where the man was almost attempting to rape the woman was obviously sexual, but beyond that I didn’t pick up on the sexuality of the piece. Leger and Murphy’s “Ballet mécanique” was by far my favorite work that we watched. I loved the way the filmmakers portrayed everyday movements as acts of beauty. The close ups of the individual features of the girl’s face really intrigued me. I also liked the repetition of mechanical actions. Watching them for an extended period of time allowed us as viewers to truly see the beauty in these commonplace procedures.