Sirius Remembered

Last updated
Sirius Remembered
Directed by Stan Brakhage
Release date
  • 1959 (1959)
Running time
11 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent

Sirius Remembered is a 1959 American experimental short film directed by Stan Brakhage. It captures the gradual decomposition of the corpse of Sirius, the Brakhage family's dog, over the course of several months.

Contents

Description

The film is divided into three parts. The first shows the relatively undisturbed corpse of Sirius, the second is in winter when the body is covered in snow, and the third shows the decay as it thaws in spring. [1] An increasing number of superimpositions are added over the course of the film. [2]

Production

The Brakhage family's dog Sirius died after being hit by a car. Because of Brakhage's wife Jane's beliefs about death, they opted to place the body in the forest instead of burying it. They laid the corpse beneath a tree not far from their home in Princeton, New Jersey. Because of the winter temperatures, it decomposed very little, and Stan was dismayed to be able to still see the corpse from behind their house. [3] He filmed the corpse repeatedly, usually from mid-distance, working with a handheld 16 mm camera that enabled him to freely gesture while filming. [2] Jane described it to him as a way of bringing movement back to it through camera movements and uprighting it through the camera angle. The last footage was shot in spring, following a visit from Parker Tyler and Charles Boultenhouse who had walked past the area without visibly noticing Sirius's corpse. [3]

After moving to Colorado, Stan edited Sirius Remembered while also beginning to shoot footage for Dog Star Man . [4] Upon seeing the images he was editing, Jane became upset, saying that they made her "feel dirty." This prompted Stan to seek an editing style that would create "an enclosed form" for the images of decay such that they would not directly engage viewers. [1]

Analysis

Sirius Remembered is influenced by the work of Gertrude Stein, to which Brakhage had been introduced by poet Robert Duncan. He pointed to her idea that repetition of a word cannot truly exist, as each subsequent appearance produces a new word based on its context. [1]

Many of the motifs from Sirius Remembered were further developed in Brakhage's Dog Star Man series. The series revisits the themes of the connection between a man and his dog and the slow processes of death and decay. The panning shots from the corpse up to a tree led to the series' image of the white tree. [1] Fred Camper notes that Brakhage's 1971 film The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes also uses corpse imagery toward poetic aims, linking its shot of a face being removed from a human skull during an autopsy to the fleeting appearances of Sirius's skull. He contrasts how these images function in the two films, with Sirius's appearance acting as an interruption of the camera movements and the autopsies in The Act of Seeing acting as episodic narratives. [5]

Critical reception

Ernest Callenbach responded negatively to the film, describing Brakhage's cinematography and editing as "jittery…like the effect of a 33rpm record of Webern being played at 78rpm." [6] David Remnick wrote favorably of it in a review for The Washington Post , calling it "so astonishing [in] its craftsmanship that the viewer…tends to forget the grisly object before him." [7] The Los Angeles Times writer Reed Johnson wrote that its fragmented, looping imagery "becomes a lovely, impressionistic memento mori." [8] Sirius Remembered is now part of Anthology Film Archives' Essential Cinema Repertory collection. [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>Dog Star Man</i> Series of short American experimental films

Dog Star Man is a series of short experimental films, all directed by Stan Brakhage, featuring Jane Wodening. It was released in installments between 1961 and 1964 and comprises a prelude and four parts. In 1992, Dog Star Man was included in its entirety in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and recommended for preservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stan Brakhage</span> American filmmaker and writer (1933–2003)

James Stanley Brakhage was an American filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Experimental film</span> Cinematic works that are experimental form or content

Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, particularly early ones, relate to arts in other disciplines: painting, dance, literature and poetry, or arise from research and development of new technical resources.

Sexual Meditation: Room with View is a 1971 American experimental film directed by Stan Brakhage. Shot on 16 mm film, the film explores the often blurry nature of gender roles in the copulatory ritual.

<i>Window Water Baby Moving</i> 1959 film by Stan Brakhage

Window Water Baby Moving is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, filmed in November 1958 and released in 1959. The film documents the birth of the director's first child, Myrrena, by his then-wife Jane Brakhage, now Jane Wodening.

<i>The Hart of London</i> 1970 Canadian film

The Hart of London is a 1970 experimental Canadian film directed by Jack Chambers. Stan Brakhage proclaimed it as "one of the greatest films ever made". The film is shown in black and white and colour, and includes found news footage from 1954, film shot by the artist years earlier in Spain, and film shot by the artist in London, Ontario.

<i>Mothlight</i> 1963 American film

Mothlight is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, released in 1963. The film was created without the use of a camera.

Philip Stewart Solomon was an American experimental filmmaker noted for his work with both film and video. In recent years, Solomon had earned acclaim for a series of films that incorporate machinima made using games from the Grand Theft Auto series. His films are often described as haunting and lyrical.

The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes is a 1971 American film by Stan Brakhage. Its title is based on the literal translation of the term autopsy. The film documented the highly graphic autopsy procedures used by forensic pathologists, such as the removal of organs and the embalming process.

Thigh Line Lyre Triangular is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, released in 1961, which depicts the birth of the director's third child, a daughter named Neowyn. The film, which involves painting and hand-scratching over photographic images, is more abstract than the director's earlier Window Water Baby Moving, which documented the birth of Brakhage's first-born, Myrrenna.

Cat's Cradle is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, produced in 1959. The film was described by Brakhage as "sexual witchcraft involving two couples and a 'medium' cat."

<i>The Dante Quartet</i> 1987 film by Stan Brakhage

The Dante Quartet is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, completed in 1987. The film was inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, and took six years to produce.

<i>The Garden of Earthly Delights</i> (1981 film) 1981 American film

The Garden of Earthly Delights is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, released in 1981. The film was partly inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s painting of the same name.

<i>I... Dreaming</i> 1988 American film

I... Dreaming is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, released in 1988. The film features a soundtrack of Stephen Foster songs, composed by Joel Haertling.

Fire of Waters is an experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, produced in 1965.

Interim is a 1953 American short film drama directed by Stan Brakhage. It was the first film directed by Stan Brakhage, whose expansive filmography has made him an influential figure in experimental film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Wodening</span> American writer

Mary Jane Wodening was an American artist and writer. She is best known for her collaborations with experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, to whom she was married from 1957 until 1987. During this period, she was known as Jane Brakhage. Wodening featured in Brakhage's short film Window Water Baby Moving, in which her husband filmed her giving birth.

Schmeerguntz is a 1965 American avant-garde film by Gunvor Nelson and Dorothy Wiley. It is a collage film that contrasts messy depictions of domestic life with the pristine images of women found in media and advertising. The film was an inspiration for the Miss America protest that happened in 1968.

Anticipation of the Night is a 1958 American avant-garde film directed by Stan Brakhage. It was a breakthrough in the development of the lyrical style Brakhage used in his later films.

Blue Moses is a 1962 American experimental film directed by Stan Brakhage, starring Robert Benson.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Malanga, Gerard (1964). "Interview with Stan Brakhage". Wagner Literary Magazine. No. 4. pp. 66–67.
  2. 1 2 MacDonald, Scott (1999). "Ten (Alternative) Film on American Nature". Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment . 6 (1): 7–8. doi:10.1093/isle/6.1.1. JSTOR   44070384.
  3. 1 2 Sitney, P. Adams (1963). "Interview with Stan Brakhage". Film Culture . Vol. 30.
  4. MacDonald, Scott (2005). A Critical Cinema 4: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers. University of California Press. p. 70.
  5. Camper, Fred (2001). "Brakhage's Contradictions". Chicago Review . Vol. 47/8, no. 4/1. pp. 70–71. doi:10.2307/25304808. JSTOR   5304808.
  6. Callenbach, Ernest (1961). "Films of Stan Brakhage". Film Quarterly . 14 (3): 48. doi:10.2307/1210073. JSTOR   1210073.
  7. Remnick, David (September 26, 1981). "Ken Brakhage: Visionary on a Mountaintop". The Washington Post . Retrieved February 22, 2024.
  8. Johnson, Reed (January 17, 2013). "A unique view". The Los Angeles Times . p. D3. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013.
  9. "Essential Cinema". Anthology Film Archives . Retrieved May 14, 2024.