Page 27 - Studio International - November 1974

important, with its basic notion that the (1921-22) the words: 'The whole thing to be
constant dialectical relations of structure of the read through again, quickly'. Within the script,
film is more important than any representational the following notation: 'The frequent and
(narrative or pseudo-narrative, imagistic etc.) unexpected appearance of a lion's head is
content, and that the structuring aspects and meant to cause uneasiness and oppression, again
the attempt to decipher the structure and and again, and again.' [25] Warhol's repeated
anticipate/re-correct it, to clarify and analyse use of a same image on his silkscreens (the
the given, are primary to any specific construct. differences in the rendering), and Giacometti's
The awareness of the system is the root repeated attempts at creating a same work from
concern [21]. Within this system each work is a same model from same clay with same (Below left) Come and Go, Beckett,
record of the process of its own making, the conscious attitude attests to a basic concern with 1967
technique, the 'how' laid bare during the repetition, as does much work by serial (Centre top) Wavelength, Michael
Snow, 1967
making (the final work is, also, obviously, the minimal artists Judd, Andre, Baer, LeWitt, as 1) Interruptions in camera
end result of the taking up of time in a void, well as early Rauschenberg (white paintings and movement throughout the passage
creating a line in time from point a to point black paintings series) not to mention Bach's of time
2) Editing cuts throughout
b essentially. The specifics of duration are Fugues and the music of Reich and Riley. Yves disrupting the constructed
extremely important to structural cinema.) Klein's monochromes, Ad Reinhardt's work, as continuity
Whether the structure is simple, or complex, well as that of Cage, present a different (Centre bottom) Eh Joe, Samuel
Beckett, 1966
clear or intricate, is also not a primary concern. aesthetic, one of variation not sameness. Johns' 1) Camera movement started
Michael Snow's Wavelength and Back and Forth, targets exist in many repeated forms, redrawn by when pause in speech evidently
David Crosswaite's Film No. 1, Malcolm him, differing in size, tone, but essentially longer than 3 seconds
2) Each movement stopped by
LeGrice's Yes No Maybe Maybe Not and repeats as much as a second, third, curtain call resuming of voice
Matrix, Roger Hammond's Erlanger can be followed by a precise repeat of a frozen 3) Four inches closer each time till
Programme, John Du Cane's Opposition; (in-) action. All these repeats are non-mechanistic, big close up of face
(Right) Film strip from Arrest,
Jill Eatherley's Deck, and my own work they are different in as much as nothing is John Blake
(Hall, Clouds, Upside Down Feature, Room
Film 1973) are works within this system. The
works do not illustrate a system, they are such.
They crucially mitigate against dominant cinema.
To muddle the whole essay a little, a quote
from Mr Beckett: 'I can't see any trace of any
system anywhere'.[22]
4.
Examples of kinds of shape/structure:
A) The diagram. Some such works can be
expressed in simplified form.
Beckett, Come and Go (1967)
Mike Snow, Wavelength (1967)
Mike Snow, Back and Forth (1969)
Paul Klee, Alter Kiang (1925)
Andy Warhol, Sleep (1963)
Carl Andre, Breezeblocks (1965)
Steve Reich, Drumming (1971)
Andy Warhol, Serial Paintings (1964)
extreme lower right or left corners left blank.
B) The Repeat. In his own production of
Endgame in Berlin (1967), Beckett wished for
three curtain calls at the end of each night's
performance, with the actors frozen in to their
last pre-curtain position (same ending for
Krapp's Last Tape in London 1973). 'Three
times there's crying to each his tear. That's
there are no coincidences
not a coincidence
in Endgame. Everything's built on analogies
and repetitions'. [23] At the end of his play,
PLA Y, the words: 'The repeat may be an exact
replica of first statement or it may present an
element of variation. In other words, the light
(which is structured and which denotes which
character must speak-PG) may operate the
second time exactly as it did the first
(exact replica) or it may try a different
method
' [24] (These instructions for the
repeat were not included in the first English
edition of the work). At the end of Maholy
Nagy's Dynamic of the Metropolis filmscript
185