A Movie’s Movie

I had loved film for a long time, and studied it for years before I saw Bruce Conner’s seminal short, A Movie, and learned what editing could really do. It was playing at Metro Cinema along with some other American experimental classics like Raygun and Wavelength (okay, it’s Canadian, but has the same sensibility), and, I think, Kustom Kar Kommandos. It was one of the most memorable series for me and it changed my fundamental knowledge of film.

Eisenstein’s theories and Potemkin and Hitchcock’s razor cuts are fine, but Conner’s short extended the language that I had become familiar with. It was as if someone gave me the concept of the infinite; the notion of the universe expanding, creating itself out of nothing and becoming everything. So of its place and time, all found footage, cobbled together from all manner of sources, and lovingly collaged together, A Movie is a product of the artistic experimentation and explosion of 1950’s America.

These things should be mandatory for all people who talk film and love cinema.

Bruce Conner passed away a few days ago. Though he did not want a funeral, I hope he doesn’t mind this little note.

As you watch the webbed A Movie, be aware that experimental film depends on its medium, on the rat-a-tat-tat of the shutter, on the emulsion, and particularly films like Raygun (a flicker film which really f@cks your mind) just don’t translate well to video. You get the form, but not the essence.