In "Surface Tension", experimental filmmaker Hollis Frampton makes a film in which sound is not connected to sight, a recurring theme in his body of work. Divided into three parts, each part has no connection with the next and the sound does not contain any relevance with the picture in any way either. Instead of demonstrating a simple concept through basic visuals as in his earliest works, Frampton in this case is purely experimental: there is no hidden story or morality attached to the action. We accept what happens and nothing more.
The three parts of "Surface Tension" are all very random in imagery and in sound even more so. According to Frampton, the first two were intended to be passages of time and space; that is just about all the analysis that can be applied to the film. The first segment is a replayed shot in which, while the ringing of a telephone is heard constantly, a man messes with the dials on some sort of radio (it looks nothing like a telephone) before moving hyper-actively in fast motion. The second is a fast motion tour of a big city, with an incomprehensible narration in German accompanying it. The dizzying array of images in this part make it a visual thrill. Finally, the last bit is a simple shot of a goldfish in the tide (really in a fishtank) with a series of random texts playing out onscreen. In this segment, there is no sound but the scene is effective in how the fish is swept with powerful and overwhelming force into the waves.
Even though I am a fan of experimental shorts, this still puzzled me. It's not meant to make sense, yet I still find myself wondering what the point of the randomness in this film was. In the earliest surrealist works, one at least sees recurring themes that create a wonderful sense of mystery, but nothing in this film creates any such thing and everything is completely unrelated in visual aspect, with no recurrences--set aside the waves at the beginning and end. It's art, folks, just accept it for what it is. I have, and I find it very interesting.
The three parts of "Surface Tension" are all very random in imagery and in sound even more so. According to Frampton, the first two were intended to be passages of time and space; that is just about all the analysis that can be applied to the film. The first segment is a replayed shot in which, while the ringing of a telephone is heard constantly, a man messes with the dials on some sort of radio (it looks nothing like a telephone) before moving hyper-actively in fast motion. The second is a fast motion tour of a big city, with an incomprehensible narration in German accompanying it. The dizzying array of images in this part make it a visual thrill. Finally, the last bit is a simple shot of a goldfish in the tide (really in a fishtank) with a series of random texts playing out onscreen. In this segment, there is no sound but the scene is effective in how the fish is swept with powerful and overwhelming force into the waves.
Even though I am a fan of experimental shorts, this still puzzled me. It's not meant to make sense, yet I still find myself wondering what the point of the randomness in this film was. In the earliest surrealist works, one at least sees recurring themes that create a wonderful sense of mystery, but nothing in this film creates any such thing and everything is completely unrelated in visual aspect, with no recurrences--set aside the waves at the beginning and end. It's art, folks, just accept it for what it is. I have, and I find it very interesting.