Brakhage and the Birth of Silence
Discussions of “silent cinema” have generally focused on films made during the silent era (1894-1929). Even after the spread of synchronized sound, however, several experimental filmmakers created films without soundtracks, purely visual experiences that challenged cinema’s status as a multisensory...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Texas Press
2019
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| Online Access: | View Fulltext in Publisher |
| Summary: | Discussions of “silent cinema” have generally focused on films made during the silent era (1894-1929). Even after the spread of synchronized sound, however, several experimental filmmakers created films without soundtracks, purely visual experiences that challenged cinema’s status as a multisensory medium. This article gives close attention to Stan Brakhage’s 1959 film Window Water Baby Moving as a way of outlining some of the effects of cinematic silence, such as aesthetic ambiguity and a heightened awareness of cinema’s visual rhythms. © 2019, University of Texas Press. All rights reserved. |
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| ISBN: | 25784900 (ISSN) |
| DOI: | 10.1353/cj.2019.0003 |