According to imdb.com Michael Snow’s Wavelength (1967) has been “chosen by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada to be preserved for future generations.” That’s all well and good I suppose. It might not be what I would have chosen but that’s really a moot point. The film famously consists of one location, one angle, one zoom, and ostensibly one shot. It’s actually pretty easy to tell that it’s a series of shots, as lighting betrays the cuts, but even so this technical error doesn’t really affect the quality of the movie. There isn’t anybody out there who’d love this film were it not for the questionable quality. In a way, it is the ultimate think piece of the art of cinema; a room, a zoom, and a photo of waves. You can think it means whatever you want it to.
I personally think that the title doesn’t refer to the picture displayed at the film’s conclusion, but the ever increasing frequency of the noise audible on the soundtrack. If you thought the endless zoom I described above would be accompanied by riveting dialogue, you’d be mistaken. The film only has a few short conversations, some urban ambiance, and one use of The Beatles “Strawberry Fields Forever.” I also think that while this use of Lennon and McCartney somehow works, the film would have a much higher (no pun intended) appeal to Pink Floyd fans, and of course Stan Brakhage apologists. I only fall into one of those categories and as a result of that allegiance to the Floyd I couldn’t help but have “Any Colour You Like” (from Dark Side of the Moon) running through my head while watching. As the frequency from the speakers rose, so did the tempo in my head.
The piece begins with a high angle wide shot inside a metropolitan loft. A few people come in an out of the room, and the camera begins its slow journey forward. For the first half of the film it is unclear if it’s moving toward anything in particular. At about twenty minutes into the film a crash is audible and a man, appearing to have been attacked, stumbles into the frame, now in a full shot. He falls over, presumably dead, and the camera continues right on past him, never deviating from its course. About ten minutes later a woman enters and discovers the body. By now the frame is tight enough that we can’t see much of the room, but it’s clear that we’re moving toward a picture mounted on the wall. The film is an exercise in antici…pation. In the world of film logic, the picture must reveal something about this apparent murder. But does it?
I don’t think it does. I don’t think it is supposed to. I don’t think that anyone could come up with reasoning as to how it could. I think Snow made a film intentionally difficult to sit through, and meaning to toy with his viewers, but I also think this picture proves an excellent point about the nature of cinema. The audience is a slave to the camera, we can not know that which exists beyond its frame and thus it dictates to us what is important. I’m not saying this film is as revolutionary as the Kuleshov project, but as an experimental piece of cinema it does the trick. And for that, it gets a hat.
Language: English
Runtime: 43 minutes
Available @ videos.google.com
Grade: 1 Hat Off
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