| Summary: | THE MECHANIZED EYE is part of the film retrospective UNSEEN CINEMA that explores long-forgotten American experimental cinema. "Portrait of a Young Man" is a16mm film in three movements shot between 1925 and 1931. Rodakiewicz considered adding sound to the film, but he decided that musical accompaniment would only be saying the same thing twice. Shooting sporadic over six years. Locations relevant only to what happened to be seen there. For almost entire period, no plan for continuity of a structured film. Motivation entirely to capture keen experiences no matter what the subject matter. A constant winnowing for the significant detail. Eventually thought occurred that the footage revealed the person. Film accordingly so titled and edited. -- HENWAR RODAKIEWICZ. Actual photography was surpassingly beautiful ... There were wonderful abstract shots of clouds rolling, slowed-up waves crashing darkly on a beach as if controlled by some slower Lunar law, smoke rising in translucent plumes, palms rustling, but most of all the sea -- sheets of water spread over black rocks, or whirling in jewelled spume or folding in on its even whiteness. --LINCOLN KIRSTEIN, "ARTS WEEKLY" 1932 Henwar Rodakiewicz, from the mid-1920s when he made "Portrait of a Young Man" until his innovative experiments in TV documentary, remained in the forefront of independent American filmmaking. As a writer, editor, and director, he was celebrated for exploiting the beauty inherent in his material and for his uncompromising honesty. --IRVING JACOBY. 16mm 1.37:1 black & white intenionally silent 16fps 52:41 minutes. Camera, editing: Henwar Rodakiewicz. Courtesy: Filmmakers Showcase. SILENT.
|
|---|