Eyes Upside Down: Visionary Filmmakers And The Heritage Of Emerson: Visionary Filmmakers And The Heritage Of Emerson

Sitney analyzes in detail the work of eleven American avant-garde filmmakers as heirs to the aesthetics of exhilaration and innovative vision articulated by Ralph Waldo Emerson and explored by John Cage, Charles Olson and Gertrude Stein. The films discussed span the sixty years since the Second World War. With three chapters each devoted to Stan Brakhage and Robert Beavers, two each to Hollis Frampton and Jonas Mekas, and single chapters on Marie Menken, Ian Hugo, Andrew Noren, Warren Sonbert, Su Friedrich, Ernie Gehr, and Abigail Child, Eyes Upside Down is the fruit of Sitney's lifelong study of visionary aspirations in the American avant-garde cinema. 0195331141......Page 1 Contents......Page 14 Introduction: Emersonian Poetics......Page 18 1 Marie Menken and the Somatic Camera......Page 36 2 Ian Hugo and Superimposition......Page 63 3 Stan Brakhage’s Autobiography as a Cinematic Sequence......Page 85 4 Jonas Mekas and the Diary Film......Page 98 5 Hollis Frampton and the Specter of Narrative......Page 113 6 Robert Beavers’s Winged Distance/Sightless Measure: The Cycle of the Ephebe......Page 138 7 Beavers’s Second Cycle: The Past in the Present—the Present in the Past......Page 160 8 Andrew Noren and the Open-Ended Cinematic Sequence......Page 185 9 Ernie Gehr and the Axis of Primary Thought......Page 212 10 Warren Sonbert’s Movements in a Concerto......Page 235 11 Brakhage and the Tales of the Tribes......Page 258 12 Frampton’s Magellan......Page 274 13 Abigail Child: Textual Self-Reliance......Page 286 14 Su Friedrich: “Giving Birth to Myself ”......Page 311 15 Brakhage: Meditative Cinema......Page 336 16 Beavers’s Third Cycle: The Theater of Gesture......Page 364 17 Mekas’s Retrospection......Page 387 Conclusion: Perfect Exhilaration......Page 407 Appendix: Chronology of Films......Page 416 B......Page 424 D......Page 426 F......Page 427 H......Page 428 M......Page 429 O......Page 430 S......Page 431 Z......Page 432 Oxford University Press, USA 0195331141 1 Contents 14 Introduction: Emersonian Poetics 18 1 Marie Menken and the Somatic Camera 36 2 Ian Hugo and Superimposition 63 3 Stan Brakhage’s Autobiography as a Cinematic Sequence 85 4 Jonas Mekas and the Diary Film 98 5 Hollis Frampton and the Specter of Narrative 113 6 Robert Beavers’s Winged Distance/Sightless Measure: The Cycle of the Ephebe 138 7 Beavers’s Second Cycle: The Past in the Present—the Present in the Past 160 8 Andrew Noren and the Open-Ended Cinematic Sequence 185 9 Ernie Gehr and the Axis of Primary Thought 212 10 Warren Sonbert’s Movements in a Concerto 235 11 Brakhage and the Tales of the Tribes 258 12 Frampton’s Magellan 274 13 Abigail Child: Textual Self-Reliance 286 14 Su Friedrich: “Giving Birth to Myself ” 311 15 Brakhage: Meditative Cinema 336 16 Beavers’s Third Cycle: The Theater of Gesture 364 17 Mekas’s Retrospection 387 Conclusion: Perfect Exhilaration 407 Appendix: Chronology of Films 416 Index 424 A 424 B 424 C 426 D 426 E 427 F 427 G 428 H 428 I 429 J 429 K 429 L 429 M 429 N 430 O 430 P 431 R 431 S 431 T 432 V 432 W 432 Z 432 ISBN-13:,9780195331141 "P. Adams Sitney analyzes in detail the work of eleven American avant-garde filmmakers as heirs to the aesthetics of exhilaration and innovative vision articulated by Ralph Waldo Emerson and explored by John Cage, Charles Olson, and Gertrude Stein. The films discussed span the sixty years since the Second World War. With three chapters each devoted to Stan Brakhage and Robert Beavers, two each to Hollis Frampton and Jonas Mekas, and single chapters on Marie Menken, Ian Hugo, Andrew Noren, Warren Sonbert, Su Friedrich, Ernie Gehr, and Abigail Child, Eyes Upside Down is the fruit of Sitney's lifelong study of visionary aspirations in the American avant-garde cinema."--Publisher's description
Sitney analyzes in detail the work of eleven American avant-garde filmmakers as heirs to the aesthetics of exhilaration and innovative vision articulated by Ralph Waldo Emerson and explored by John Cage, Charles Olson and Gertrude Stein. The films discussed span the sixty years since the Second World War. With three chapters each devoted to Stan Brakhage and Robert Beavers, two each to Hollis Frampton and Jonas Mekas, and single chapters on Marie Menken, Ian Hugo, Andrew Noren, Warren Sonbert, Su Friedrich, Ernie Gehr, and Abigail Child, Eyes Upside Down is the fruit of Sitney's lifelong study of visionary aspirations in the American avant-garde cinema. Introduction: Emersonian Poetics. 1. Marie Menken and the Somatic Camera. 2. Ian Hugo and Superimposition. 3. Stan Brakhage's Autobiography as a Cinematic Sequence. 4. Jonas Mekas and the Diary Film. 5. Hollis Frampton and the Spectre of Narrative. 6. Robert Beavers's Winged Distance/Sightless Measure: The Cycle of the Ephebe. 7. Beavers's Second Cycle: The Past in the Present - The Present in the Past. 8. Andrew Noren and the Open-Ended Cinematic Sequence. 9. Ernie Gehr and the Axis of Primary Thought. 10. Warren Sonbert's Movements in a Concerto. 11. Brakhage and the Tales of the Tribes. 12