User Reviews

Stan Brakhage described 'Prelude 2 (1996),' the second in a series of 24 short films, as follows: "Interplay of toned rectangular shapes, vertical and horizontal and diagonal lines in juxtaposition with hardened darker shapes which gradually shift tone and lighten until ending on thin blues." I can't argue with this description: there are certainly toned rectangular shapes, all sorts of lines, and hardened darker shapes, but why do they matter? Hand-painted directly onto sections of 16mm film, "Prelude 2" (as with its predecessor) seems to be operating on a one-dimensional level: that of art painted directly onto film. The animation doesn't distort the viewer's visual perception – as was the case with 'Black Ice (1994)' – nor does it inspire the subconscious to invent its own reality, as I found with 'The Dante Quartet (1987).' Instead, it gave me a little bit of a headache, which only worsened when I tried to decipher Brakhage's artistic motivations. There must be something to the "Preludes," or else he wouldn't have made two dozen of them. Time will tell.