The closed-eye visions are really evident here, and really rapturous. What a painter! The film is in constant flux, and you’re conscious that each new frame picture really deserves, and would really reward, more concentrated attention. If this is a closed-eye vision, though, then the desire to fix and domesticate is probably inappropriate.
In the midst of Brakhage’s protean films, and all of the heightened things that he says about them, I sometimes wonder. Is he a Gnostic? The scratched title “praise be/to God”—lovely—is followed by a really amazing, body-freed stretch of colour and kinesis. On the other hand, sensation is so central to his work, and so unequivocally validated, that he can’t be hating the body too much.
Here’s Brakhage scholar/devotée Fred Camper, with a response to this film, and a number that are similar to it: http://bit.ly/1IpSd2j