Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

Un coffret à consommer lentement, un
titre à la fois. Interdisez-vous d’appuyer
sur le bouton «Play all films»!
El cine experimental, que se proyecta
por excelencia en lugares no
comerciales, ha sido la víctima del
consabido predominio del cine de
ficción y sus sesiones de dos horas.
Pero este cine, que llamábamos
marginal, ya forma parte de la historia
y las películas de vanguardia se
proyectan en los festivales, museos y
simposios, a menudo bajo forma de
compilaciones (90 minutos de Hollis
Frampton, dos horas de surrealismo
francés, etc.) en contextos muy alejados
de la idea original de esas obras.
Evidentemente, los responsables del
cuarto volumen de la National Film
Preservation Foundation han sido muy
conscientes del desafío y están lejos
de pretender presentar una historia
sincretista del cine de vanguardia
estadounidense (contrariamente
a la colección Unseen Cinema
publicada en 2005): aquí, el placer
del descubrimiento prevalece sobre
la exhaustividad. Varios cineastas
famosos no están necesariamente
representados por sus películas más
célebres y en la presentación de las
películas no hay un orden estricto por
géneros, por estilos, etc.
Otro aspecto importante de esta
edición es la calidad de los textos de
introducción, que se dirigen al mismo
tiempo al especialista y al cinéfilo
curioso, y su relación con cada película
por separado. Es un placer leer las
notas, biográficas, históricas y estéticas,
y luego dejarse llevar por la película.
Las 26 películas que componen el
estuche atestiguan el trabajo de cinco
archivos fílmicos: el Anthology Film
Archive (la mayor colección para el
cine experimental en Estados Unidos),
el Academy Film Archive, el Museum
of Modern Art, el Pacific Film Archive
y el New York Public Library’s Donnell
Media Center. Por último, la música
de acompañamiento de John Zorn es,
desde todo punto de vista, notable, por
su sutileza y diversidad.
Un estuche que hay que consumir
lentamente, una película a la vez, sin
pulsar el botón «Play all films».
and the circumstances leading to the preservation of his or her work, and
then plunging into the film with confidence and an enhanced sense of
curiosity. Treasures IV has received ample praise in its early reviews, but few
commentaries have stressed the most innovative aspect of this endeavor,
the determination to be accessible to a non-specialized viewer.
The consideration for the needs of a diverse constituency of users is
evident in the language adopted for the booklet, seamlessly blending
information and insight of equal value for the specialist, the student, and
the cinephile. There is so much more here than a traditional introduction to
each film: there are some little gems of storytelling, such as in the inspired
text accompanying Joseph Cornell’s untitled film known as By Night with
Torch and Spear (1940s?). No one skimming through these two pages can
resist the temptation of looking at this film before anything else in the set.
Throughout the book, there is no attempt to mythologize or intimidate the
reader with rhetorical or arcane terminology; instead, there is a consistent
effort to bring the life and work of the artist closer to our sensibility, paying
equal respect to the imperatives of historical accuracy and conceptual
clarity.
The compilation highlights the work of five American archives and
museums: Anthology Film Archives (deservedly taking center stage with
more than half of the titles in the compilation), the Academy Film Archive,
the Museum of Modern Art, the Pacific Film Archive, and the New York
Public Library’s Donnell Media Center, and all should be praised for their
dedication in presenting the best available versions of the films, sometimes
in multiple versions. The choice of John Zorn as the composer of the music
for the alternate tracks (and for the films originally meant to be shown as
silent) should be especially applauded, given the subtlety and expressive
range of his compositions. Those in search of so-called “masterpieces”
will be pleased to encounter objects of breathtaking beauty, such as
Frampton’s (nostalgia), a paean to memory and to the ephemeral nature
of the reproduced image; those who wish to celebrate celebrity can enjoy
Andy Warhol’s 1964 portrait of drag performer Mario Montez in Mario
Banana (No.1). But the real pleasure of Treasures IV is in its overall package,
a triumph of curatorship under the cover of an educational sampler. This
is a treat to be enjoyed slowly, one title at a time. Don’t pick the “play all
films” option.
Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film 1947-1986. Twenty-six works by Harry Smith,
Jonas Mekas, Bruce Baillie, Chick Strand, Jane Conger Belson Shimane, Robert Breer,
Hollis Frampton, Larry Gottheim, Lawrence Jordan, Owen Land, Standish Lawder, Paul
Sharits, Storm De Hirsch, Pat O’Neill, Wallace Berman, Saul Levine, Joseph Cornell,
Stan Brakhage, Christopher Maclaine, Shirley Clarke, Marie Menken, Ken Jacobs, Ron
Rice, Andy Warhol, George Kuchar, Robert Nelson, and William T. Wiley. National Film
Preservation Foundation / Image Entertainment, 2009; 312 minutes, Region 0, NTSC
format; alternative versions and soundtracks, with new music by John Zorn; 2 DVDs, with
a 72-page booklet (foreword by Martin Scorsese).
78 Journal of Film Preservation / 81 / 2009