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PERMANENT GALLERY
20 Bedford PlaceBrighton BN1 2PT
Wednesday 30 April 8pm (doors 7.30pm)
/ £2 ENTRY
Line Describing a Cone
(Anthony McCall 1973 30 mins 16mm)
The first of the 'solid light' films. Shown in an empty space, the film
consists of the coming-into-being of a three-dimensional, projected cone
of light in the space between the projector and the wall. _
'In Line Describing a Cone (1973), the conventional primacy of the screen
is completely abandoned in favour of the primacy of the projection event.
The audience is expected to move up and down, in and out of the beam -
this film cannot be fully experienced by a stationery spectator. The shift
of image as a function of shift of perspective is the operative principle
of the film. External content is eliminated, and the entire film consists
of the controlled line of light emanating from the projector; the act
of appreciating the film - i.e. 'the process of its realisation' - is
the content.'_
Deke Dusinberre, 'On Expanding CInema' Studio International, Nov/Dec 1975.
Screening selected in response to the exhibition ‘Following Line’
by Benoit Carpentier (29th March - 27th April 2008)
Ropetackle Films Screenings
Ropetackle Centre : Little High St. Shoreham
Bus 700 / Train From Brighton. It’s quick!
Contact: cinematheque@yahoo.com
THE SECRET MASTERPIECES OF CINEMA 1: DREAMS
The ‘Secret Masterpieces’ series include newly restored
classics and influential gems that have blazed a trail through the visual
arts, fashion, music and design influencing countless artists and films
throughout the 20th Century. ‘Dreams’ collects together the
mythic, the nightmarish and the psychedelic revealing cinema in all its
magical intensity. ‘Seminal works of art-house cinema’ The
Independent. ‘Ground-breaking’ The Guardian.
Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dali
France, 1928) + Les Jeux Des Anges (Walerian Borowczyk France, 1964) +
Meshes Of The Afternoon (Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid USA, 1943) + Dimensions
Of Dialogue (Jan Svankmajer Czech Republic, 1982)Asparagus (Suzan Pitt
USA, 1979) + Our Lady Of The Sphere (Jordan USA, 1969).
SAYAT NOVA / THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANITES
(Sergie Paradjanov / Russia / 1969 / 16mm / 75 mins)
Sergie Paradjanov’s greatest film is also his most radical and obscure
– a journey into the inner world of Armenian poet Aruthin Sayadin
‘a singer who raised the poetry of the troubadour bards to heights
not reached before…’. Told through a series of self contained
episodes, its breathtaking mix of imagery drawn from Armenian folklore
would see Paradjanov jailed by the Russian authorities as an ‘ideological
deviant’. ‘Surrender yourself to the beauty, colour and rhythm
of this remarkable film’ Time Out
+ BELLS OF ATLANTIS (Ian Hugo 1952 16mm 10 mins)
A perfect fusion of poetry and film, with dense layered imagery and music
from electro pioneers Louise and Bebe Barron. The writer Anais Nin provides
dialogue from her novella ‘House of Incest’ and appears adrift
in the undersea realm of Atlantis before ascending to dry land.
Sunday 11th May at 7pm
THE WILD BLUE YONDER
(Werner Herzog / USA / Germany / 2007 / 81 mins)
German director Werner Herzog continues to defy expectations with this
visionary and wholly unconventional sci-fi. The plot is deceptively simple;
Alien Brad Doriff has left behind a dying planet and travelled the universe
in a failed attempt to establish a new civilization on Earth – but
is he simply a delusional human…and what’s happened to the
Earth? Instead of Hollywood effects wizardry, Herzog opts for a mix of
stunning ‘found’ footage captured from the likes of shuttle
missions and amateur film shot deep below the Antarctic ice flow. The
results, played out against Dorriff’s dry, embittered humour, are
awe-inspiring and evocative. ‘In an age of mainstreaming and moderation,
one filmmaker is still fond of pushing the limits of the artform’
Bill Gibron Film Talk. ‘One of the most fantastic work of the imagination
to grace our screens for years…essential to experience on the big
screen.’ Jennie Kermode Eye for an Eye
+ LA JETTEE (Chris Marker / France / 1962 / Subtitles
/ 25 mins)
Famously the inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s ‘Twelve Monkeys’,
Marker’s unique short is composed of a series of unmoving photographs,
beautifully edited together to tell a mind-bending story of time travel
that doubles as a melancholy fable about memory, loss, childhood, and
destiny. Only for a moment is there any action on screen and that motion
is one of the cinema’s most profound.
INTO GREAT SILENCE
Philip Groning / France / Switzerland / 2006 / 162
mins / subtitles
In 1987 Philip Groning approached the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the
French Alps to ask if he could make a film about this reclusive establishment.
A mere 13 years later it agreed to his request, but on condition that
no crew or lights would be permitted, nor would the filmmaker be allowed
to interrupt the monks’ devotions. He would, instead, have to live
as they live.
Groning’s austere and remarkable portrait, a surprise hit throughout
Europe, aims to record the flow of the monks' existence - the cumulative
power of ritual, repetition and reiteration. Outside the snowy landscapes
become sunlit, florid scenes, then misty vistas, before returning to snowscapes
again.
‘Drawing comparisons to both Robert Bresson and Andrei Tarkovsky,
Into Great Silence is one of those rare celluloid experiences that truly
transport the viewer into another realm.’ Time Out