By Brakhage: An Anthology [2 Discs] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

The works of Stan Brakhage, one of America's most influential and original experimental filmmakers, finally make their way onto home video in this superb anthology from The Criterion Collection, where they've been given a caring presentation on DVD. The 26 short films on By Brakhage: An Anthology have been transferred to disc in their original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Most of the films are silent, and the few with sound have little, if any, appreciable dialogue; the audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono, with no multiple language options. Bonus materials include several short "video encounters" with Brakhage, who discusses his work and his philosophies; thoughts on several of the films from the director; and short descriptions and a new essay from Brakhage scholar Fred Camper. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Black and White
• Features:
  • New high-definition digital transfers of all 26 films
  • Video encounters with the filmmaker
  • Reflections on selected films by Stan Brakhage
  • New essay and film capsules by Brakhage expert Fred Camper
  • Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

AWARDS

• Library of Congress

•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1991

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Stan Brakhage, Colin Still

• Producer:

  Stan Brakhage, Colin Still

• Screenwriter:

  Stan Brakhage

• Cinematographer:

  Stan Brakhage

• Editor:

  Stan Brakhage

REVIEW:

• A transitional work in avant-garde artist Stan Brakhage's oeuvre, the serial film Dog Star Man (1960-1964) is a culmination of the experiments of his shorter, lyrical films, raising concerns with sexuality, nature, and humanity to the level of ritual and myth. Believing that meaning should be derived as much from the viewer's engagement and imagination as from what the artist intends, Brakhage's multi-layered superimpositions, emulsion scratches, paint splatters, flash cuts, vivid colors, anamorphic adjustments, long takes, focus shifts, color filters, and flares create an astonishing tapestry of visual experience. Influenced by Romanticism and the writings of modernist poet Ezra Pound, and structured according to the cycle of the seasons, the epic struggles of the long-haired Dog Star Man as he contends with a tree, the mountains, and corporeal existence become a metaphor for, as one writer put it, "the birth of the universe." After completing Part 4 of Dog Star Man, Brakhage reassembled the layers of each section individually and in different combinations, removed the titles announcing each part, and retitled the four and a half hour work The Art of Vision (1965). ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi