I think I can readily admit that "Anticipation of the Night" and "Dog Star Man" by Stan Brakhage were two of the most visually stunning films we have watched this entire semester. However, they nevertheless felt pretty endless and I found myself wondering with frustration what they could possibly be about. To me, they just seemed like alot of beautiful visual effects without any real meaning behind them. I obviously need to give Brakhage more credit than this, however-- clearly he had something in mind when he made these films. Maybe I should start doing the reading before I blog.

"Wedlock House", on the other hand, seemed much more comprehensible to me. It really stood out from Brakhage's other two films both because of its accessibility and because of its visual elements (the stark black and white images contrasted strongly with the lush colors of the other two films). It was still beautiful, but it seemed less like a series of semi-random images and more like a fairly cohesive story line. It relayed a sort of high-pitched excitement over wedlock that bordered on the uncomfortable. The other films, with the overload of stunning visuals, also made me semi-uncomfortable, but I'm not sure why. They reminded me of a Goya painting that Sister Wendy (the art history nun) talked about in a video once:


Sister Wendy talked about how this painting was actually really disturbing because it looks like the light, although beautiful, is curdling somehow and turning sinister and that all you need for proof is the look of fear on the dog's face. Brakhage's films reminded me in the same manner that beauty can be sinister.