Stan Brakhage II

film 9 of 27

Garden of Earthly Delights

Film Review by Dean Duncan Jun 18, 2015

Beautiful! An ABA structure, the three parts being that a dark background washes, then gets dark again. Is it the 35 mm that makes the edges and filaments and colours and all so sharp? These things pass by very quickly, yet seem to impress themselves individually, easily, and vividly upon the mind. Maybe because each little edge or surface belongs to Lushness, or Bounty, or something like unto. The image is constantly shifting, as are the echoes, the connections one can make in his mind—it’s like Ovidian metamorphosis, or Caroline Leaf/Frederic Bach-type transformation, or maybe computer morphing. What’s that famous quotation of the great British filmmaker, Michael Powell? All art is one, he said. Brakhage goes him one better, with something that is probably more primordial, profound, important. All life is one.