Section B - Exam Quesiton

'Experimental Film requires a different kind of spectatorship.' Has this been your experience? [35]

Experimental films are full of strange mixtures of images, situations, words and expressions that may not tell a cohesive story but, in the end, don't have to in order to achieve an emotional goal. This type of film therefore requires the spectator to shift their conventional cinematic expectations to accommodate more radical narrative techniques, themes and meaning construction. 

Un Chien Andalou, the infamous 1929 surrealist short film from Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, attests to this. The surrealist movement as a concept can be very difficult to understand and explain. It's main aim is to act out of the ordinary, and for such reason makes it the perfect era to start when disucussing experimental film and it's spectartorship. Un Chien Andalou is one of the most well known of surrealist films, yet my experience whilst watching it made me question why. Although I like the idea of surrealism and being able to question what is usually the normal, the method this film chooses to showcase this did confuse me; shots were regularlly changed to that of something completly different, resulting in me to become disorientated as to what I was actually watching. This was the first experimental film that I explored for this topic, which could have made a difference as my confusion of what was happening in the film was encouraged by my limited knowledge of the themes it was trying to portray; once I began to delve deeper into the idea of surrealism, although the concepts made more sense in terms of why it was all being used by Brunel and Dali, I still struggle (as i'm sure many people do) to appreciate this film to the extent that I would like to. Similarly to the reactions of others, I found parts of this film humorous; even at times, "laugh out loud" funny pardon the expression. This was due to the unusual and imaginative shots, they made me laugh because of the extent of how unordinary they were as things like a man pulling a piano containing a donkey and two priests are not something I come to expect in a film during a scene which the female character seems to be getting sexually harassed. My spectartorship of this film was constantly being changed throughout the viewing of this film, even though it is only 21 minutes in length. Unlike Hollywood and mainstream cinema, this film creates an alternate viewpoint of how films should change the opinions of it's viewers and not just spoonfeed them a simple narrative. 

Chris Marker became known internationally for the short film La Jetée (1962). It tells of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel by using a series of filmed photographs developed as a photomontage of varying pace, with limited narration and sound effects. I think for certain people this film could be very difficult to watch and keep track of, due to the technique it uses and therefore not following the regular 24 frames per second. However, the technique was what captivated me about this film, not only it's usage but the clear reasoning behind it in relation to the narrative and it's themes. In order to showcase the idea of questioning art forms along with the ways of questioning conventional structures like other experimental films, this films uses a mixutre of photography, litterature, film and music in order to convey its messages; and I found this idea fasinating and therefore did not struggle when it came to watching or discussing the film. The intriguing ideology that was explored through the use of newly found techniques for this era is the main experimental feature surrounding this film, and this could be a reason behind why I found it much easier to watch than certain other experimental films. La Jetée is the only experimental film that I have watched which begins to tell a story through the use of what is the closest to a mainstream narrative structure. It's use of a circular plot, narration and science fiction genre conventions, make it much more similar to those which I usually watch which is probably the reason behind my closer connection with this film in comparison to others in the experimental genre. 

Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a work that maintains all of the mystery, tranquility, unpredictability, and personal attachment that is ever present within the world of dreams. Dream Logic is a common theme within many experimental films, this is probably due to the surrealist factor that dreams actually have, they are an alternate reality of the human mind. The more mystery which Meshes of the Afternoon is described with, the easier it will be to put across the mystery which it still holds with me. I simply could not be held attentive to this film for a convienient amount of time to give it a worthy description. The use of repretivtive music and a mirrored face were the things that stuck with me most about this film, the mirrored face was an intersting concept that through me solely watching this film I would not have been able to pinpoint. Yet after grasping it's use was to show how the lead female character was acting in a way that was expected of her of the men at this time, and therefore she was just a reflection of their views;  I began to appreciate ideas which Deren wanted to portray due to the "surprising" nature of her being a female director within this time period.

Throughout my experience with experimental film I have found it a much more complex area of cinema to understand and develop opinions on than the average Hollywood film, and therefore I stick to the clear opinion that there is no doubt when watching experimental films, viewpoints can be tested and therefore a much more open form of spectatorship is needed to appreciate the ideas which experimental films stood for.