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Directed by: Stan Brakhage Starring: Stan Brakhage, Jane Brakhage Stan Brakhage might as well be known for the most 'famous' American experimental filmmaker. Most of his films are totally silent (as is the case of Dog Star Man) and has texture as an important element. He has made more than 300 films ranging from 9 seconds to 4 hours. Dog Star Man is split into five parts: Prelude - 25 min Part 1 - 30 min, 34 sec Part 2 - 5 min, 36 sec Part 3 - 7 min, 37 sec Part 4 - 6 min, 1 sec There is also a four-hour version of the whole film, "The Art of Vision", which I have not seen. Most of the film shows superimposed imagenry (such as syline, trees, cells, a baby) mixed with footage of Stan as a woodsman, trying to climb a mountain and chopping logs. The film's very nature will most certainly not appeal to some. But I found it great and very innovative (the film was done between 1961 and 1964). If you are willing to give it a try, or is it a fan of Brakhage's work, you can find it in the great Brakhage antholy Criterion has released last year (see link above). RATING: 5 PROS: Very interesting, advanced for its age CONS: Might be too strange and / or boring for some ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234512/combined (Prelude) ; http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=184 (By Brakhage: An Antology)
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Jun 4, 2004 14:32
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 12:04 |
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Brakhage is not really a filmmaker. He's an artist who uses film as his canvas... and usually in the literal sense. There is no plot and no dialogue. Dog Star Man happens to have a character (a rarity for Brakhage), but he has no identity and he does nothing except trudge through the snow with a dog. It would be easy to write off Brakhage's films as pretentious, meaningless random nonsense. But like any abstract art, you get out of it what you put into it, and if you fail to be completely receptive to the work, the work will fail to impress you. Watching Brakhage is somewhat like getting your brain reorganized, like the most intense part of a heavy acid trip. Confusing images linger onscreen, sometimes coalescing into something recognizable, sometimes not. At other times, they flicker past in a mad rush, to the point where your eyes no longer try to process them but simply let them invade you. What the films really mean is ultimately irrelevant. Brakhage's own explanations frankly are pretentious. To me, his movies are (this is going to sound fruity) gateways to rarely-visited areas of the mind. This is definitely among my favorite Brakhage works. There are certainly a pile of nagging questions that arise when watching his films (not the least of which are those which question their artistic value) but that's a sign of Good Art. I was lucky enough to catch a Brakhage exhibition last year, and Criterion's DVD set is a very special treat, but I hunger for more! Rating: 4.5 FitFortDanga fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Aug 24, 2005 |
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Jan 26, 2005 23:11
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If you hadn't already figured out, the film is anything but conventional. There is no discernable plot, no dialogue (not a soundtrack at all, in fact), and no "protagonist" or "setting" per se. For those of you whose eyes lit up after reading the previous sentence, this movie is probably for you. Seek it out and enjoy it. However, for these exact same reasons, many will find Dog Star Man terribly boring, pretentious, and utterly unwatchable. It is certainly not for everybody. But Brakhage's use of silence is more intentional than lazy: he once said that he wants to "make music using film" (I don't remember the quote exactly, but that was the basic idea). No description can accurately capture the essence of something like Dog Star Man. It must be seen to be appreciated and understood. It was released on a 2003 2-DVD set called "By Brakhage: an Anthology" along with many of his other most famous works. Recommended. 4/5
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Aug 29, 2005 23:03
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