[Frameworks] Singularity and intentional incoherence

Fri Jan 25 02:05:44 CST 2013

Thanks Carl, I'll look for it.

On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 1:35 PM, Carl Lee <carl at termite.org> wrote:

>  Hi Ittai --
>
> My memory is hazy, but I remember there's a Jane Campion film -- I think
> it might be The Piano, but possibly an earlier film than that -- where a
> girl is telling a story and it suddenly cuts to a short hand-drawn
> animation sequence.  It's the only moment in the film that's like that (the
> rest of the movie is "live-action") and it's never really explained why
> we're seeing it like this, though it does relate to the story the girl is
> telling.  (If I'm remembering correctly...it's possible I'm just imagining
> remembering it.....but I'm sure others on fw would know for sure.)
>
> Carl
>
>
>
> On 1/23/2013 6:04 PM, Ittai Rosenbaum wrote:
>
> Tom, Bryan, Roger
>
> Thank you so much! The examples - of which I knew only one: "Blazing
> Saddles" - sound very interesting and relevant. I will check them all out
> and share any further information.
>
> Ittai
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:13 AM, Beebe, Roger <rogerbb at ufl.edu> wrote:
>
>>  Just to piggyback on/unpack Tom's mention of "Hapax Legomena"--it's
>> actually 7 films (that can be considered as one larger unit).  The title
>> refers to words that only appear once in the written record, in an author's
>> work, etc.  (In ancient texts, this makes them especially difficult to
>> decipher, as you might imagine.)  So the title itself refers to
>> singularity--you'll have to take a look at the films, three of which are on
>> the Frampton Criterion set, to see if the films seem to speak to/embody
>> that concept.
>>
>>  ...
>>  Roger
>>
>>   On Jan 23, 2013, at 10:22 AM, Tom Whiteside wrote:
>>
>>     This is interesting – thanks for asking a fresh question. As a “film
>> person” who started out in music decades ago, I have always envied and
>> admired the breadth and depth of musicology. Film studies is such a young
>> field – we are centuries behind.
>>
>>   Filmmaker Hollis Frampton made a film titled “Hapax Legomena” which
>> immediately comes to mind.
>>
>>  And although Mel Brooks doesn’t make this list too often, he’s going to
>> hit it twice right away. A good example of your singular event would be in
>> his Western film “Blazing Saddles,” the cowboys are galloping across the
>> plains and the movie music is playing on the soundtrack, sounds like Count
>> Basie and His Orchestra – well my goodness, it IS Count  Basie and His
>> Orchestra and the cowboys just rode right past them, out there on the
>> plains. It’s a simple thing, played for laughs – the previously unseen
>> soundtrack orchestra revealed – but it is quite a singular moment.  And for
>> many people it probably changed, at least a little bit, the way they think
>> about “movie music.”
>>
>>  There is the moment in Jem Cohen’s “Lost Book Found” when the
>> conventional “unseen narrator” voice slowly fades out and is replaced by a
>> different, unexpected voice, delivering a more cryptic message. It is a
>> pivotal moment in that film. Similarly, in Raul Ruiz’s “Hypothesis of the
>> Stolen Painting” a guy is sitting in a chair talking in rather flat tones,
>> it becomes increasingly boring, he slows down…. and he falls asleep. On
>> camera, the narration just goes to sleep. I only saw that film once and am
>> probably not remembering this correctly, but I do remember the singularity
>> of my experience sitting there, listening to this guy, trying to make sense
>> of it, getting a bit bored, then watching him nod off. That woke me up!
>>
>>  Tom                Durham Cinematheque
>>
>>  *From:* frameworks-bounces at jonasmekasfilms.com [mailto:
>> frameworks-bounces at jonasmekasfilms.com] *On Behalf Of *Ittai Rosenbaum
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 23, 2013 2:37 AM
>> *To:* frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com
>> *Subject:* [Frameworks] Singularity and intentional incoherence
>>
>>
>> Hi
>>  My name is Ittai Rosenbaum, I am a doctoral student at the music
>> composition department at UCSC and in the process of defining my
>> Qualification Exams topics. I wondered if anyone could perhaps have
>> interesting knowledge or insights about a subject in film theory that might
>> parallel one of my topics.
>>
>> I am interested in singular events in composition: events that occur only
>> once, contrasted and incoherent to the main musical language of the work,
>> yet deliberately conceived and intentionally inserted in the composition,
>> contributing, by way of distraction and surprise, to the conception of the
>> piece.
>>
>> Coherence seems to constitute a compulsory element in composition, and
>> even incoherence (surprise, collage etc.) as it happens in the music of,
>> say, Charles Ives, George Crumb or John Zorn, becomes coherent and even
>> homogenous once it recurs. I suspect that *singular*, incoherent events
>> may have a genuine effect, different than that.
>>
>> I am interested in parallel or similar phenomena in film, as my own
>> compositions are more than often related to the visual, verbal, social and
>> other elements usually inherent in film.
>> Far from an expert in films, I do recall several instances where I felt I
>> have viewed such singular events in film: the awakening in Chris Marker’s
>> La jetée – a single moment of two seconds of movement in a film made
>> entirely of stills, some moments that I can't recall now in Fellini's films
>> (although usually there is a certain "homogeneity of singularity" in the
>> ones I saw), and a comic one, in Mel Brooks’s *Silent Movie*, when the
>> famous pantomime Marcel Marceau utters the only single word in the film:
>> “no!”
>>
>> I would be very interested to know if this is something that has been
>> written about and generally what your experience and opinion is.
>>
>> thank you
>>
>>
>> --
>>   Ittai Rosenbaum
>> www.ittairosenbaum.com
>>
>> (650) 704-6566
>>
>> PRÆSENTEM
>>
>> http://earbits.com/
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>
>
> --
>  Ittai Rosenbaum
> www.ittairosenbaum.com
>
> (650) 704-6566
>
> PRÆSENTEM
>
> http://earbits.com/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
Ittai Rosenbaum
www.ittairosenbaum.com

(650) 704-6566

PRÆSENTEM

http://earbits.com/
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