This Is Called Moving: A Critical Poetics of Film

317 Pages·2005·1.6 MB·English

by  Abigail Child

THIS IS CALLED MOVING
A CRITICAL
POETICS
OF FILM
ABIGAIL
CHILD
With a Foreword by
TOM GUNNING
THIS IS CALLED MOVING
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY POETICS
Series Editors
Charles Bernstein
Hank Lazer
Series Advisory Board
Maria Damon
Rachel Blau DuPlessis
Alan Golding
Susan Howe
Nathaniel Mackey
Jerome McGann
Harryette Mullen
Aldon Nielsen
Marjorie Perloff
Joan Retallack
Ron Silliman
Lorenzo Thomas
Jerry Ward
THIS IS CALLED MOVING
A Critical Poetics of Film
ABIGAIL CHILD
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa
Copyright © 2005
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Typeface: Stone Serif and Stone Sans
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
Science–Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI
Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Child, Abigail.
This is called moving : a critical poetics of ¤lm / Abigail Child.
p. cm. — (Modern and contemporary poetics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8173-1444-X (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8173-5160-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Experimental ¤lms—History and criticism. 2. Motion pictures—Aesthetics.
3. Motion pictures—Philosophy. 4. Child, Abigail. I. Title. II. Series.
PN1995.9.E96C42 2005
791.43′611—dc22
2004015748
for Hannah Weiner
“don’t quote”
1928–1997
A composite of frame enlargements from Abigail Child’s Covert Action (16
mm, b/w, sound, 10 min., 1984).
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Poetry in Motion
by Tom Gunning xi
Preface xxi
SEX TALK
Before Agreement 4
Rewire/Speak in Disagreement (With Sally Silvers) 8
Melodrama and Montage (On Nicole Brossard/
Hannah Weiner) 19
Sex Talk (With Camille Roy) 34
Sade’s Motor 44
Active Theory 53
Active Theory 2: Antiphon 70
MATRIX
Cross-Referencing the Units of Sight and Sound/Film and
Language 87
Hand Signals Overcome Noise, Distance 91
Lined Up Bulk Senses (On Larry Eigner) 95
All Three Mixed Please 97
“In the Darkest Night Dart These Bright Saloons” (On Manuel
DeLanda/Vivienne Dick/Henry Hills) 104
Word of Mouth (On Aline Mayer) 108
Memory Works (On Len Lye) 110
Hand Signals 2 (On Mary Lattimore/Nancy Miller/
Anita Miles) 113
Baroque Cinema (On Warren Sonbert) 117
Deselective Attention (On Peter Kubelka/Martin Arnold/Bruce
Conner/Arthur Lipsett) 120
Sound Talk 132
Antiserum (On Luis Buñuel/Dan Eisenberg) 140
viii | Contents
Outside Topographies: Three Moments in Film (On Andy
Warhol/Dziga Vertov) 153
The Exhibit and the Circulation (On Dziga Vertov/
Sergei Eisenstein) 159
INTERROGATIONS
Time Corners Interview (With Charles Bernstein) 175
Prefaces 190
Preface for Prefaces: Part 1 of Is This What You Were Born For? 197
Mutiny 200
Locales Interview (With Michael Amnasan) 204
Covert Action 209
So This Is Called Moving? Interview (With Madeline Leskin) 215
Mayhem 228
A Motive for Mayhem 231
Mercy 237
The Furnished Frame and the Social Net 240
Being a Witness: Notes for B/side 245
Notes 265
Selected Works by the Author 281
Index 283
Illustrations
frontispiece: Four girls from Covert Action
1. Finale [1] from Mayhem 2
2. Finale [2] from Mayhem 3
3. “NO” from Covert Action 11
4. Four from Perils 21
5. Polka-dotted woman [1] from Mayhem 27
6. Polka-dotted woman [2] from Mayhem 28
7. Kiss from Covert Action 35
8. “NINE” from Covert Action 45
9. Man with rope at neck from Mayhem 48
10. Male breast from Mayhem 49
11. Two girls in bathing suits from Covert Action 54
12. Upside-down waterfall with sound from Covert Action 69
13. Michael Snow’s “Rameau’s Nephew” by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis
Young) by Wilma Schoen 88
14. Ken Jacobs’s Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son 92
15. Peter Kubelka’s Pausa 123
16. Hollis Frampton’s Critical Mass, part 4 of Hapax Legomena 124
17. Martin Arnold’s Passage a l’Acte 125
18. Peter Kubelka’s Unsere Afrikareise 126
19. Luis Buñuel’s Land without Bread (Las Hurdes) 141
20. Dan Eisenberg’s Displaced Person 148
21. Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera 155
22. Andy Warhol’s Beauty #2 157
23. Frame enlargement from Mayhem 174
24. Woman’s head from Prefaces 191
25. Frame enlargements from Prefaces 196
26. Frame enlargement from 8 Million 205
27. Couples from Covert Action 210
28. Hula dancer from Covert Action 216
29. Three frame enlargements from Mayhem 229