Short films vs. Silent films

I have to say I really enjoyed Breer's short films from last week. The first, Recreation, completely drew me in with its crazy super-speed cuts, and random objects and shapes that at first, seemed nothing more than nonsense. But as Breer writes himself at some point, the film was not about making sense, but rather was sense, and I see his point. In all the chaos there was something connected, something that was completely enthralling and seemed to give the film a feeling of unity. It seemed to return to the idea of looking vs. seeing, asking the viewer to see, try to make the imperfect eye keep up with what was going on, and enjoy the complete overwhleming nature of it. Though less frenzied, equally abstract, was Man and His Dog Out for Air, which had a stream of constantly changing lines that although didn't generally resemble a man or a dog for most of the film, kept the viewer just waiting to see when they would appear.

On the other hand, I appreciated Brakhage's films, even enjoyed them in a sense, but perhaps it is my tainted 21st century mind, or simply my distaste for completely silent settings, but it was just hard to focus and maintain interest is something so lacking in sound, it was as if there was a missing element. I did really enjoy the shots and images, but with the length of the films, the silence really did not work for me.