The Garden in the Machine: A Field Guide to Independent Films about Place

497 Pages·2001·33.152 MB·English

by  Scott MacDonald

Scott MacDonald
The Garden
in the Machine
A Field Guide to Independent Films about Place
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY
LOS ANGELES
LONDON
The Garden in the Machine
The publisher gratefully acknowledges
the generous contribution to this
book provided by the General
Endowment Fund of the Associates of
the University of California Press.
Scott MacDonald
The Garden
in the Machine
A Field Guide to Independent Films about Place
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY
LOS ANGELES
LONDON
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2001 by the Regents of the University of California
Earlier versions of several chapters, or portions of
chapters, have been published previously; the later
versions are reprinted here by permission: “The Garden in
the Machine,” in Prospects22 (1997): 239–62; “Voyages
of Life,” in Wide Angle18, no. 2 (April 1996): 101–26;
“Re-envisioning the American West,” in American Studies
39, no. 1 (spring 1998): 115–46; “From the Sublime to the
Vernacular,” in Film Quarterly53, no. 1 (fall 1999): 12–25;
portions of the “The City as Motion Picture,” in Film
Quarterly51, no.2 (winter 1997–98): 2–20, and in Wide
Angle19, no. 4 (October 1997): 109–30; and “The Country
in the City,” in Journal of American Studies31, no. 3 (winter
1997): 337–60.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
MacDonald, Scott, 1942–
The Garden in the machine : a field guide to inde-
pendent films about place / Scott MacDonald.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0–520-22737-9 (cloth : alk. paper).—
isbn0–520-22738-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Experimental films—History and criticism.
2.Motion pictures—Setting and scenery. I. Title.
pn1995.9.e96 m344 2001
791.43'—dc21 2001027877
CIP
Manufactured in Canada
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the
minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992
(r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
For Patricia Reichgott O’Connor—
lover, partner, family, advisor, witness—
this book begins and ends with you.

We have advanced by leaps to the Pacific,
andleft many a lesser Oregon and California
unexplored behind us.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU, THE MAINE WOODS

Contents
3 Avant-Gardens 45
Kenneth Anger’s Eaux d’artifice,
Marie Menken’s Glimpse of the
Garden, Carolee Schneemann’s
List of Illustrations xiii Fuses,Stan Brakhage’s The Garden
of Earthly Delights,Marjorie Keller’s
The Answering Furrow, Anne Charlotte
Robertson’s Melon Patches, Or Reasons
Introduction xix to Go on Living,Rose Lowder’s
ecological cinema
1 The Garden in the Machine 1 4 Re-envisioning the
Larry Gottheim’s Fog Line,Thomas American West 89
Cole’s The Oxbow,J.J. Murphy’sSky
Babette Mangolte’s The Sky on
Blue Water Light Sign,panoramas
Location,James Benning’s North
on Evers, Oliver Stone’s Natural
Born Killers,Ellen Spiro’s Roam
2 Voyages of Life 23
Sweet Home
Thomas Cole’s The Voyage of Life,
Larry Gottheim’s Horizons
5 From the Sublime
to the Vernacular 125
Jan DeBont’s Twisterand
George Kuchar’s Weather Diaries