The Orphic Vision of Brakhage's Cinema

Abstract

With a screening of The Dante Quartet A discussion of the relationship of cinema to memory, imagination, closed eye vision, and poetry, through the work of the prolific experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage (1933-2003). His best-known works include The Wonder Ring (1955), The Dead (1960), Blue Moses (1962), Mothlight (1963), 23rd Psalm Branch (1966-67), the Scenes from Under Childhood cycle (1967-70), and the Arabic Numeral Series (1981-82). The lecture will discuss Brakhage&#8217;s hand-painted The Dante Quartet(1987, 7 min.). P. Adams Sitney is currently a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin. He is the author ofVisionary Film (Oxford University Press, 1974, 2nd edn. 1979, 3rd edn. 2002); Vital Crises in Italian Cinema: Iconography, Stylistics, Politics (University of Texas Press, 1995); Modernist Montage: The Obscurity of Vision in Cinema and Literature (Columbia University Press, 1992), and Eyes Upside Down: Visionary Filmmakers and the Heritage of Emerson (Oxford University Press, 2009). He is a Professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University.P. Adams Sitney, The Orphic Vision of Brakhage’s Cinema, lecture and screening, ICI Berlin, 23 March 2011, part 1, video recording, mp4, 11:42 <https://doi.org/10.25620/e110323