Underground Us film-maker who later parodied his early experimental work
A question that one should never ask an experimental film-maker is: "What is your film about?" George Landow, who has died unexpectedly aged 67, would probably have responded: "It's about eight minutes." Along with many other "structural" American film directors in the 1960s and 1970s, Landow – who changed his name to the semi-anagram Owen Land in 1977 – rejected linear narrative, giving primacy to the shape and essence of film. "I didn't want to make films that were narrative. I found the whole traditional narrative approach was really non-visual," he commented.
This is demonstrated in the self-explanatory title of Landow's Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles, Etc (1966). What he called "the dirtiest film ever made" consists of four identical images of a blinking woman, off-centre, made to appear as a loop without a beginning and end, giving prominence...
A question that one should never ask an experimental film-maker is: "What is your film about?" George Landow, who has died unexpectedly aged 67, would probably have responded: "It's about eight minutes." Along with many other "structural" American film directors in the 1960s and 1970s, Landow – who changed his name to the semi-anagram Owen Land in 1977 – rejected linear narrative, giving primacy to the shape and essence of film. "I didn't want to make films that were narrative. I found the whole traditional narrative approach was really non-visual," he commented.
This is demonstrated in the self-explanatory title of Landow's Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles, Etc (1966). What he called "the dirtiest film ever made" consists of four identical images of a blinking woman, off-centre, made to appear as a loop without a beginning and end, giving prominence...
- 8/28/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Experimental Cinema is reporting the sad news that structural film pioneer Owen Land died last month on June 8. The cause of death isn’t being reported, but he was found dead in his Los Angeles apartment.
Born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1944, Land was born as George Landow. Land described his initial approach to filmmaking as applying a “painterly way of thinking” to film production in an interview with P. Adams Sitney in a 1969 issue of the magazine Film Culture. However, that style soon also incorporated Land’s spiritual and philosophical interests.
His most popular early works are 1963′s Fleming Faloon, in which Land attempted to create the illusion of depth on the movie screen’s flat surface; 1967′s Bardo Follies, a meditative film in which Land created the illusion of a burning movie screen; 1968′s The Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter, in which an animator...
Born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1944, Land was born as George Landow. Land described his initial approach to filmmaking as applying a “painterly way of thinking” to film production in an interview with P. Adams Sitney in a 1969 issue of the magazine Film Culture. However, that style soon also incorporated Land’s spiritual and philosophical interests.
His most popular early works are 1963′s Fleming Faloon, in which Land attempted to create the illusion of depth on the movie screen’s flat surface; 1967′s Bardo Follies, a meditative film in which Land created the illusion of a burning movie screen; 1968′s The Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter, in which an animator...
- 7/14/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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