Experimental/Avant-Garde Challenge (Official, February 2021)

[klaus78]

Spoiler

1.-5a. Masterworks of American Avant-garde Experimental Film 1920-1970

Manhatta (1921) [rewatch] 7/10
Ballet mécanique (1924) [rewatch] 8/10
Anémic cinéma (1926) 6/10
The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (1928) [rewatch] 6/10
Skyscraper Symphony (1929) 6/10
Mechanical Principles (1931) [rewatch] 8/10
A Bronx Morning (1931) 7/10
Poem 8 (1932) 5/10
An Optical Poem (1938) [rewatch] 7/10
Thimble Theater (1938) 5/10
Pursuit of Happiness (1940) 6/10
Tarantella (1940) 7/10
1941 (1941) 6/10
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) [rewatch] 8/10
Meditation on Violence (1949) 6/10
In the Street (1948) [rewatch] 6/10
Four in the Afternoon (1951) 6/10
Abstronic (1952) 7/10
Bells of Atlantis (1952) 8/10
Eaux d'artifice (1953) [rewatch] 8/10
Evolution (1954) 7/10
Gyromorphosis (1954) 7/10
Hurry Hurry (1957) 5/10
N.Y., N.Y. (1957) [rewatch] 7/10
Castro Street (1966) [rewatch] 7/10
9 Variations on a Dance Theme (1966) 7/10
The Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter (1968) 5/10
Our Lady of the Sphere (1969) 6/10
Love It, Leave It (1973) 7/10
DL2: Disintegration Line #2 (1970) 7/10
Transport (1970) 4/10
Sappho and Jerry, Parts 1-3 (1978) 6/10
Ch'an (1983) 6/10
Seasons... (2002) 7/10

5b.-10. By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volume Two

The Wonder Ring (1955) 6/10
The Dead (1960) 7/10
Two: Creeley/McClure (1965) 6/10
23rd Psalm Branch: Part I (1967) 7/10
23rd Psalm Branch: Part II (1978) 7/10
Scenes from Under Childhood Section #1 (1969) 8/10
The Machine of Eden (1970) 8/10
Star Garden (1974) 6/10
Desert (1976) 8/10
The Process (1972) 7/10
Burial Path (1978) 6/10
Duplicity III (1980) 6/10
The Domain of the Moment (1977) 6/10
Murder Psalm (1980) 6/10
Arabic Numeral Series 12 (1981) 7/10
Visions in Meditation #1 (1989) 7/10
Visions in Meditation #2: Mesa Verde (1989) 6/10
Visions in Meditation #3: Plato's Cave (1990) 7/10
Visions in Meditation #4: D.H. Lawrence (1990) 7/10
Unconscious London Strata (1981) 7/10
Boulder Blues and Pearls and... (1992) 8/10
The Mammals of Victoria (1994) 6/10
First Hymn to the Night - Novalis (1994) 7/10
I Take These Truths (1994) 7/10
The Cat of the Worm's Green Realm (1997) 7/10
Yggdrasill: Whose Roots Are Stars in the Human Mind (1997) 7/10
...Reel Five (1999) 6/10
Persian Series #1 (1999) 6/10
Persian Series #2 (1999) 7/10
Persian Series #3 (1999) 7/10
Chinese Series (2003) 6/10

11.-13. A Hollis Frampton Odyssey
Manual of Arms (1966) 6/10
Process Red (1966) 6/10
Maxwell's Demon (1968) 6/10
Surface Tension (1968) 6/10
Carrots & Peas (1969) 4/10
Lemon (1969) 5/10
Zorns Lemma (1970) [rewatch] 7/10
Hapax Legomena I: Nostalgia (1971) [rewatch] 7/10
Hapax Legomena III: Critical Mass (1971) 3/10
The Birth of Magellan: Cadenza I (1977) 6/10
Pan 0-4, 697-700 (1974) 5/10
Magellan: At the Gates of Death, Part I: The Red Gate I, 0 (1976) 6/10
Ingenivm Nobis Ipsa Pvella Fecit: Part I (1975) 4/10
Winter Solstice (1974) 6/10
Gloria! (1979) 4/10

[Ebbywebby]

St. Gloede, you keep citing "Insonius" instead of "Insomnius."

[Ebbywebby]

6. Le clair de terre (1970) Earth Light 8+
7. Absences répétées (1972) Repeated Absences 9

I don't think I'd count those two, personally.

[sol]

Challenge as a Subversive Art

1. Blue (1993)
2. Limite (1931)
3. Heart of a Dog (2015)
4. Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez! (2012)
5. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
6. Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969)
7. Anticipation of the Night (1958)
8. Up Your Legs Forever (1971)
9. Rameau's Nephew (1974)
10. The Green Fog (2017)

11. Film Portrait (1972)



An autobiographical documentary with a difference. Hill does not just present footage; he also manipulates it in wild and unpredictable ways, from adding animation, to spinning photo cut-outs, to superimposing shots over each other, etc. And yet, while Hill's introductory comments about separating the "me that was" from his present self are fascinating, I actually voice-over narration a bit dull overall, though his whole growing up with cinema is pretty cool.

[peeptoad]

6. Le clair de terre (1970) Earth Light 8+
7. Absences répétées (1972) Repeated Absences 9

I don't think I'd count those two, personally.

Too straightforward? I have no problem omitting them if that's the consensus, though they are in the Forum list in the OP...

[St. Gloede]

As a general rule I'd say anything included in the lists above should warrant inclusion - I do personally think Gilles is on the arthouse side rather than the experimental side of the grey area - but many clearly differ.

[peeptoad]

As a general rule I'd say anything included in the lists above should warrant inclusion - I do personally think Gilles is on the arthouse side rather than the experimental side of the grey area - but many clearly differ.

I agree on them being close to arthouse vs. experimental or ag... labels in relation to style can change over time too, so if it's not really keeping in spirit with the challenge I don't mind omitting them. Either way...

[Ebbywebby]

6. Le clair de terre (1970) Earth Light 8+
7. Absences répétées (1972) Repeated Absences 9

I don't think I'd count those two, personally.

Too straightforward? I have no problem omitting them if that's the consensus, though they are in the Forum list in the OP...

Whatever you like...I'm not "competitive" about these challenges. Just giving my opinion.

[Ebbywebby]

1. The Catherine Wheel (1982, feature)...David Byrne/Twyla Tharp dance collaboration
2a. Solstice (1971, 35 min)...Walter Ungerer...enigmatic nonsense in a forest
2b. Il Caso Valdemar 1936 (12 min)...damn interesting horror short that's shockingly gory for its era
2c. La maison tranquille 1901 (2 min)...Melies
2d. Animation School Dropout 2015 (1 min)...utter trash
2e. Paris s'en va 1981 (30 min) -- Rivette outtakes from Le Pont du Nord
3. Hands Up! 1981...interesting Skolimowski film where he repackages material from a 1967 project that the government shut down
4. "Ici et Ailleurs" (1976)...political Godard. Not as unwatchable as some of his other films from the period. Officially 53 minutes.
5. "Three Crowns of a Sailor" 1983.
6a. "Sonne, Halt!" (1962)...a strange, jagged Austrian short that's essentially flashed scenes from a vacation in Italy? The subtitles seemed very rough and undercut my comprehension. I'm the ninth person to check it. Only 24 minutes, so it doesn't help my tally on its own.
6b. "The Color of Love" (1994)...only 10 minutes long, so I'm still working toward a set of shorts counting as one entry. If I understand the scoring system correctly. Peggy Ahwesh takes an old, rotting stag-reel clip of a homely threesome in bed, and aggressively treats it with color splotches and the like. Astor Piazzolla's instantly identifiable brand of tango music is added as score. The result is somewhere between Brakhage and Bill Morrison. The version I saw had such terrible resolution that it significantly impeded my enjoyment.
6c. "Threnody" (2004)...20 minutes. Nathaniel Dorsky. A meandering sequence of tight shots of various scenes, often involving flickering, wavering motion and mostly but not entirely set in nature. The film is 100% silent. I can't say that I really understand what Dorsky hopes to evoke.
6d. "Sonata for Pen, Brush and Ruler" (1968)...fun 10-minute short involving handpainting a negative a la Len Lye or Norman McLaren. It's on YouTube. I'm the second person to check this -- I only stumbled upon it because I was looking at a random ICM list and it was the only included film without a runtime (now it has one). I guess I'm still 16 minutes shy of another 80-minute set of shorts.
6e. "Alaya" (Nathaniel Dorsky, 1987). Twenty-eight minutes, so this puts me over the 80-minute threshold for a second set of shorts. I guess what's most sensible is to just add up the lengths at the end of the month and divide by 80. "Alaya" is a sequence of gentle little nature scenes with sand, gravel, grass, etc. being rustled by wind and water. Sometimes landscapes, sometimes in miniature. The online version may not be optimal, because some parts were essentially "black screen" and I'm not sure they were intended to be.
7. "My 20th Century" (1989). The story needed more focus, but I really enjoyed this for the most part. Recommended to Guy Maddin fans. I think this is a popular film among the forum crowd, so I probably don't need to say more.
8. "Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania" (1972). Finally, my first Jonas Mekas feature. But it may be the last. Despite this being shorter than some of his other films, this was utter torture for me to get through. My ultimate film hell is a movie with steady narration, delivered by a voice with a hard-to-understand accent plus lo-fi sound that makes him/her even harder to understand.

I see a lot of deviant things on the experimental border, but I'm trying to be strict-ish about classification. I saw Jodorowsky's recent "Psychomagic: A Healing Art" two nights ago, but the "experimentation" is all in the content rather than the filmmaking. So I'm skipping this. I did see.....

9. "Kinetta" (2005). Early Yorgos Lanthimos. This one is a real chore, and its measly 4.8 IMDb rating serves as fair warning. Much of the film is essentially silent, following listless activities by three central characters. Two men and a woman. Gradually you realize the older character is sort of a policeman who recruits the other two to re-stage scenes of domestic violence for vague purposes of analysis? The woman is self-destructive...the "cop" likes BMW cars...the other man is a photographer...it doesn't add up to much. Just another example of Lanthimos's strange, detached-outsider take on humanity. I don't really understand what makes him tick.

[flavo5000]

What are people's thoughts on Jafar Panahi's The Mirror and Taxi being included here? Personally I think The Mirror would for sure. It's basically free of narrative and is very much structured as an experiment. Taxi I'm much more on the fence on. There still isn't a central forward narrative beyond "Panahi picks up people in a taxi cab" and blurs the line between documentary and fiction but it does have a certain cohesion that many other experimental films lack.

[Hunziker]

1- Shorts (80 minutes, 13 checks)
Face to Panty Ratio (2011) - 3 min - 6/10
Coney Island at Night (1905) - 4 min - 6/10
L'antre des esprits (1901) - 3 min - 6/10
The Impossible Convicts (1906) - 3 min - 6/10
Akt-Skulpturen. Studienfilm für bildende Künstler (1903) - 1 min - 7/10
Ruskin (1998) - 39 min - 8/10
Stars and Stripes (1939) - 3 min - 6/10
Carabosse (1980) - 4 min - 6/10
Études de mouvements (1928) - 4 min - 6/10
Falling (2011) - 4 min - 7/10
Flammes (1998) - 4 min - 7/10
Kaleidoscope (1935) - 4 min - 6/10
Opus II (1921) - 4 min - 6/10

2. Shorts (81 minutes, 24 checks)
Permian Strata (1969) - 4 min - 7/10
Word Movie (1966) - 4 min - 6/10
Wofl 2106 (2008) - 4 min - 7/10
All Through the Night (2008) - 5 mins - 7/10
Breakaway (1966) - 5 min - 8/10
Energie! (2007) - 5 min - 8/10
Pauvre Pierrot (1892) - 4 min - 6/10
Prometheus (1992) - 2 min - 6/10
Autour d'une cabine (1894) - 2 min - 6/10
Prometheus (1992) - 2 min - 6/10
Holtpont (1982) - 4 min - 6/10
Magic Umbrella (1965) - 4 min - 5/10
Self Portrait (1988) - 1 min - 6/10
Striper v0.1 (2006) - 1 min - 6/10
42/83: No Film (1983) - 1 min - 6/10
NBC Valentine Greeting (1940) - 1 min - 5/10
Inside Silo 11 (1969) - 1 min - 6/10
Gradiva (2014) - 2 min - 5/10
Sztandar mlodych (1957) - 2 min - 8/10
Le songe d'un garçon de café (1910) - 5 min - 6/10
Passage à l'acte (1993) - 12 min - 8/10
Preserving Cultural Traditions in a Period of Instability (2004) - 3 min - 8/10
Tails (1976) - 3 min -8/10
To the Happy Few (2003) - 4 min - 7/10

[Ebbywebby]

What are people's thoughts on Jafar Panahi's The Mirror and Taxi being included here? Personally I think The Mirror would for sure. It's basically free of narrative and is very much structured as an experiment. Taxi I'm much more on the fence on. There still isn't a central forward narrative beyond "Panahi picks up people in a taxi cab" and blurs the line between documentary and fiction but it does have a certain cohesion that many other experimental films lack.

I wouldn't share them if I had freshly seen them, but do what thou willst.

[flavo5000]

What are people's thoughts on Jafar Panahi's The Mirror and Taxi being included here? Personally I think The Mirror would for sure. It's basically free of narrative and is very much structured as an experiment. Taxi I'm much more on the fence on. There still isn't a central forward narrative beyond "Panahi picks up people in a taxi cab" and blurs the line between documentary and fiction but it does have a certain cohesion that many other experimental films lack.

I wouldn't share them if I had freshly seen them, but do what thou willst.

I'll probably leave Taxi out but honestly I think The Mirror is more experimental than things that have been logged in here already like Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania.

[flavo5000]

8. "Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania" (1972). Finally, my first Jonas Mekas feature. But it may be the last. Despite this being shorter than some of his other films, this was utter torture for me to get through. My ultimate film hell is a movie with steady narration, delivered by a voice with a hard-to-understand accent plus lo-fi sound that makes him/her even harder to understand.

I would suggest avoiding As I Was Moving Ahead... like the plague then. It's close to five hours of that.

[maxwelldeux]

8. "Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania" (1972). Finally, my first Jonas Mekas feature. But it may be the last. Despite this being shorter than some of his other films, this was utter torture for me to get through. My ultimate film hell is a movie with steady narration, delivered by a voice with a hard-to-understand accent plus lo-fi sound that makes him/her even harder to understand.

I would suggest avoiding As I Was Moving Ahead... like the plague then. It's close to five hours of that.

I'd second that sentiment... I watched 3 of Mekas' films last month, which was more than enough to last a lifetime, for a variety of reasons, including the one you listed.

[Dolwphin]

Mekas repeatedly warns you and informs you that nothing happens in his films and you don't have to continue watching. Yet people continue watching for hours upon hours. Then they are still complaining about the films?

[maxwelldeux]

For Science!

1. The Five Obstructions (2003)
2. From the East (1993)

3. Termite Gumbo (2020)

I decided to go all out on this one. Based on the advice of "Might be a good one to spark a j and zone out to", I did just that. Lit up, sat in my office, turned on the black light, turned off my other monitors, and focused solely on this.

Overall, I think I liked this one just slightly less than "Heart of Screenland," and I think a huge part of that is because I relate to the scenery a whole lot more. Part of what I like about driving around in the country (or exurbia, if you prefer) is that you get beautiful scenery, but it doesn't change quickly. You get to really soak it in and appreciate it. To this day, I'll still just head out and drive around in the middle of nowhere just to enjoy it. And I really liked the what I was seeing in the film - I just wanted to see it for a bit longer at a time. The cuts felt a little too quick for me to fully absorb and appreciate the scenes. This clocked in at 48m, and I think it could have been an hour or so with the same number of cuts and would have been a richer experience. Good stuff, I just wanted a tad more of it.

Knowing this is exurbia around LA, I really liked the juxtaposition of country roads with "urban" music, as well as with the industrial scapes that occasionally pop up. That helped sell the story of "yes, this is out in the country, but it's still reasonably close to a big urban area." It was a theme that kept popping up and a welcome one at that.

I'm most excited for part three, which I'll get to this month. I do need to re-up my pot supply, though.

[jdidaco]

(Screenshots from 'Graphyty', 'Testament', 'Lucifer', 'Lapse', 'Verlassen; Verloren; Einsam, Kalt', 'The Watchmen' & 'Comfort Stations'),

Yes, 7 years we travelled the seas,
Seasick sailors on seaworthy ships.
But we saw nothing!
Nothing, nothing. (Klaus Wyborny)

(French Experiments)

*. Graphyty (Jean-Pierre Bouyxou, 1968) 8.5/10 (22 min)
63. Dérive 'Le naufrage de Vénus' (Yvan Lagrange, 1974) 8/10
64. Mélodrame (Melodrama, Jean-Louis Jorge, 1976) 8/10
65. Double Labyrinthe (Maria Klonaris & Katerina Thomadaki, 1976) 8/10
*. Dansité (Jean-Paul Dupuis, 1978) 9/10 (11 min)
*. Angle (Michel Nedjar, 1978) 7/10 (16 min)
*. Allegoria (Stéphane Marti, 1979) 7/10 (14 min)
*. Grenouilles (Frogs, Adolfo Arrieta, 1983) 7.5/10 (35 min)
66. La présence réelle (The Real Presence, Raúl Ruiz, 1984) 8.5/10
*. Actus (Alain Mazars, 1984) 7.5/10 (27 min)
*. Passage du désir (Jakobois, 1988) 7.5/10 (11 min)



*. Nuptiae (James Broughton, 1971) 7.5/10 (14 min)
*. Testament (James Broughton, 1974) 7.5/10 (20 min)
*. Hermes Bird (James Broughton, 1979) 7/10 (10 min)
*. Devotions (James Broughton & Joel Singer, 1983) 8/10 (22 min)



(Experimental Belgium)

*. Ô Sidarta (Michel Jakar & Philippe Druillet, 1974) 7/10 (11 min)
*. Irkutz 88 (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 2005) 8/10 (22 min)
67. Lucifer (Gust Van den Berghe, 2014) 8/10



68. Operneïa (Claudine Eizykman, 1980) 8.5/10
69. Lapse (Claudine Eizykman, 1981) 10/10



(Klaus Wyborny's "Lieder der Erde Teil" (Song of the Earth) Cycle)

70. Am Rand der Finsternis (At the Edge of Darkness, Klaus Wyborny, 1985) 9.5/10
71. Gnade und Dinge: 11 Stücke auf Film (Grace, Things, Klaus Wyborny, 1985) 9.5/10
72. Verlassen; Verloren; Einsam, Kalt (Abandoned; Lost; Lonely, Cold, Klaus Wyborny, 1992) 10/10
73. Aus dem Zeitalter des Übermuts (Dichtung und Wahrheit) (From the Age of Recklessness, Klaus Wyborny, 1994) 9/10
74. Eine Andere Welt (Another World, Klaus Wyborny, 2004) 9/10



*. Tender Feet (Fern Silva, 2013) 7/10 (11 min)
*. Wayward Fronds (Fern Silva, 2015) 8/10 (13 min)
*. Ride Like Lightning, Crash Like Thunder (Fern Silva, 2017) 6.5/10 (9 min)
*. The Watchmen (Fern Silva, 2017) 8/10 (10 min)



*. Wolkenschatten (Cloud Shadows, Anja Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy, 2014) 8/10 (17 min)
*. Comfort Stations (Anja Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy, 2018) 8.5/10 (26 min)




75-78. * A collection of shorts (Total: 321 min)

64 features, 60 shorts

Spoiler

1. Les Situs heureux (Alain Montesse, 1970-78) 8.5/10
*. Bugey pour mémoire (Alain Montesse, 1971) 7/10 (7 min)
2. Dagboek (Diary, Johan van der Keuken, 1972) 9/10
3. De nieuwe ijstijd (The New Ice Age, Johan van der Keuken, 1974-79) 9/10
4. De tijd (Time, Johan van der Keuken, 1983) 8/10
*. She Is Away (R. Bruce Elder, 1976) 7.5/10 (13 min)
*. Permutations and Combinations (R. Bruce Elder, 1976) 7/10 (7 min)
*. Sweet Love Remembered (R. Bruce Elder, 1980) 7.5/10 (12 min)
*. 1857 (Fool's Gold) (R. Bruce Elder, 1981) 8.5/10 (25 min)
5. Lamentations a Monument for the Dead World (R. Bruce Elder, 1985) 9/10
*. Work in Progress from Consolations (Love Is an Art of Time) (R. Bruce Elder, 1988) 7/10 (23 min)
6. Et Resurrectus Est (R. Bruce Elder, 1994) 8.5/10
*. Liberté Provisoire (Teo Hernandez, 1977) 8.5/10 (23 min)
*. Corps Aboli (Teo Hernandez, 1978) 9/10 (16 min)
7. Cristaux (Teo Hernandez, 1978) 10/10
*. Tables d'hiver (Teo Hernandez, 1979) 9/10 (29 min)
8. Lacrima Christi (Teo Hernandez, 1980) 9.5/10
*. Gong (Teo Hernandez, 1981) 9.5/10 (39 min)
*. Sacré-Coeur (Teo Hernandez, 1983) 8/10 (17 min)
*. Pas de ciel (Teo Hernandez, 1987) 8.5/10 (29 min)
9. Magnum Begynasium Bruxellense (Boris Lehman, 1978) 8.5/10
10. Couple, regards, positions (Boris Lehman & Nadine Wandel, 1983) 8/10
11. À la recherche du lieu de ma naissance (Looking for My Birthplace, Boris Lehman, 1990) 8/10
12. Compilation, 12 instants d'amour non partagé (Compilation, 12 Moments of Unshared Love, Frank Beauvais, 2007) 7.5/10
13. Ne croyez surtout pas que je hurle (Just Don't Think I'll Scream, Frank Beauvais, 2019) 8/10
14-16. * (A collection of shorts) (Total: 240 min)
17. Deathstyles (Richard Myers, 1971) 9/10
*. Zocalo (Richard Myers, 1972) 10/10 (15 min)
18. Floor Show (Richard Myers, 1978) 9/10
19. Jungle Girl (Richard Myers, 1984) 8/10
*. Okeanos (Myron Ort, 1972) 8/10 (33 min)
20. Old Redwood Series (Myron Ort, 1979) 10/10
21. Mouches Volantes (Larry Gottheim, 1976) 9/10
*. Mnemosyne, Mother of Muses (Larry Gottheim, 1987) 8/10 (16 min)
22. Medea (Frans Zwartjes, 1982) 9/10
23. Antigone/Rites of Passion (Amy Greenfield, 1990) 9.5/10
*. Kramasha (To Be Continued, Amit Dutta, 2007) 8/10 (22 min)
24. Sonchidi (The Golden Bird, Amit Dutta, 2011) 7/10
25. Saatvin Sair (The Seventh Walk, Amit Dutta, 2013) 9/10
*. Chitrashala (House of Paintings, Amit Dutta, 2015) 9/10 (20 min)
26. Agyat Shilpi (The Unknown Craftsman, Amit Dutta, 2017) 8.5/10
*. Ka (Who?, Amit Dutta, 2019) 7/10 (16 min)
*. Drawn from Dreams (Amit Dutta, 2019) 7/10 (7 min)
27. Poomaram (A Flowering Tree, Vipin Vijay, 2007) 7/10
28. Chitra Sutram (The Image Threads, Vipin Vijay, 2011) 8.5/10
29. Kalkimanthankatha (The Churning of Kalki, Ashish Avikunthak, 2015) 9.5/10
30. Aapothkalin Trikalika (The Kali of Emergency, Ashish Avikunthak, 2016) 8.5/10
*. Sakhisona (Prantik Narayan Basu, 2017) 8/10 (26 min)
*. Rang Mahal (Palace of Colours, Prantik Narayan Basu, 2019) 8/10 (26 min)
31-32. * A collection of shorts (Total: 181 min) (carrying over 21 minutes)
*. Pour vos beaux yeux (For Your Beautiful Eyes, Henri Storck, 1929) 7.5/10 (RV) (7 min)
*. Idylle à la plage (Romance on the Beach, Henri Storck, 1931) 9/10 (23 min)
33. Un joli petit coin (Not a Bad Little Place, Patrick Van Antwerpen, 1980) 8/10
34. Nicht mehr fliehen (No More Fleeing, Herbert Vesely, 1955) 8/10
*. Genesis (Herbert Holba, 1964) 8/10 (22 min)
*. Flipper (Herbert Holba, 1968) 6.5/10 (5 min)
*. Der Tod des Dr. Antonio durch die Renaissance der geistigen Gesellschaft (Antonis Lepeniotis, 1968) 8/10 (6 min)
35. Kureiji Rabu (Crazy Love, Michio Okabe, 1968) 9/10
36. Tarch Trip (Hiroyuki Oki, 1994) 8.5/10
37. Kokoro no naka (Inside the Mind, Hiroyuki Oki, 1997) 8.5/10
*. Habakiri Tenshi (Angel in the Toilet, Kôichi Imaizumi, 1999) 7/10 (32 min)
38. Sagrada Família (Sacred Family, Sylvio Lanna, 1970) 9/10
39. O Lobisomem (The Werewolf, Elyseu Visconti, 1974) 8/10
40. Assuntina das Amérikas (A$$untina of the Amerikas, Luiz Rosemberg Filho, 1976) 8.5/10
41. Ex isto (Cao Guimarães, 2010-16) 9/10
42. Amor Louco/Crazy Love (Júlio Bressane, 1971) 8/10
43. Educação Sentimental (Sentimental Education, Júlio Bressane, 2013) 9/10
44. Sedução da Carne (Seduction of the Flesh, Júlio Bressane, 2018) 7/10
45. A Marca do Terrir (Ivan Cardoso, 2005) 8/10
46. O Bacanal do Diabo e Outras Fitas Proibidas de Ivan Cardoso (Orgy of the Devil and Other Forbidden Tapes of Ivan Cardoso, Ivan Cardoso, 2013) 7.5/10
*. O Colírio do Corman Me Deixou Doido Demais (Corman's Eyedrops Got Me Too Crazy, Ivan Cardoso, 2020) 8.5/10 (18 min)
*. House and Universe (Antoinette Zwirchmayr, 2015) 7/10 (4 min)
*. Venus Delta (Antoinette Zwirchmayr, 2016) 7.5/10 (4 min)
*. Keep That Dream Burning (Rainer Kohlberger, 2017) 7.5/10 (8 min)
*. There must be some kind of way out of here (Rainer Kohlberger, 2020) 7.5/10 (13 min)
47-48. * A collection of shorts (21 + 142) (Total: 163 min)
*. Himmel hoch (Werner Schroeter, 1968) 8/10 (11 min)
*. La morte d'Isotta (Werner Schroeter, 1968) 7.5/10 (37 min)
*. Mona Lisa (Werner Schroeter, 1968) 6.5/10 (32 min)
49. Salome (Werner Schroeter, 1971) 8.5/10
*. Johannas Traum (Johannas Dream, Werner Schroeter, 1975) 9/10 (21 min)
50. Weiße Reise (White Journey, Werner Schroeter, 1980) 8/10
51. Nostos I (Thierry Kuntzel, 1975) 8.5/10
*. Time Smoking a Picture (Thierry Kuntzel, 1980) 9.5/10 (38 min)
52. Provincetown Pieces (Joseph Bernard, 1979) 9.5/10
*. Variant Chants (Joseph Bernard, 1983) 8.5/10 (16 min)
53. Charmed Particles (Andrew Noren, 1979) 8.5/10
*. Imaginary Light (Andrew Noren, 1994) 9/10 (34 min)
*. Az Iz (Betzy Bromberg, 1983) 8/10 (34 min)
54. A Darkness Swallowed (Betzy Bromberg, 2006) 8.5/10
55. Twee (Two, Gert de Graaff, 1986) 9/10
56. De zee die denkt (The Sea That Thinks, Gert de Graaff, 2000) 8/10
57. Still/Here (Christopher Harris, 2001) 9/10
*. Reckless Eyeballing (Christopher Harris, 2004) 7/10 (14 min)
58. Desaparadiso (Khavn, 2015) 7.5/10
59. Santikhiri Sonata (Thunska Pansittivorakul, 2019) 8/10
60-62. * (A Collection of shorts (3 + 237) (Total: 240 min)

[Ebbywebby]

1. The Catherine Wheel (1982, feature)...David Byrne/Twyla Tharp dance collaboration
2a. Solstice (1971, 35 min)...Walter Ungerer...enigmatic nonsense in a forest
2b. Il Caso Valdemar 1936 (12 min)...damn interesting horror short that's shockingly gory for its era
2c. La maison tranquille 1901 (2 min)...Melies
2d. Animation School Dropout 2015 (1 min)...utter trash
2e. Paris s'en va 1981 (30 min) -- Rivette outtakes from Le Pont du Nord
3. Hands Up! 1981...interesting Skolimowski film where he repackages material from a 1967 project that the government shut down
4. "Ici et Ailleurs" (1976)...political Godard. Not as unwatchable as some of his other films from the period. Officially 53 minutes.
5. "Three Crowns of a Sailor" 1983.
6a. "Sonne, Halt!" (1962)...a strange, jagged Austrian short that's essentially flashed scenes from a vacation in Italy? The subtitles seemed very rough and undercut my comprehension. I'm the ninth person to check it. Only 24 minutes, so it doesn't help my tally on its own.
6b. "The Color of Love" (1994)...only 10 minutes long, so I'm still working toward a set of shorts counting as one entry. If I understand the scoring system correctly. Peggy Ahwesh takes an old, rotting stag-reel clip of a homely threesome in bed, and aggressively treats it with color splotches and the like. Astor Piazzolla's instantly identifiable brand of tango music is added as score. The result is somewhere between Brakhage and Bill Morrison. The version I saw had such terrible resolution that it significantly impeded my enjoyment.
6c. "Threnody" (2004)...20 minutes. Nathaniel Dorsky. A meandering sequence of tight shots of various scenes, often involving flickering, wavering motion and mostly but not entirely set in nature. The film is 100% silent. I can't say that I really understand what Dorsky hopes to evoke.
6d. "Sonata for Pen, Brush and Ruler" (1968)...fun 10-minute short involving handpainting a negative a la Len Lye or Norman McLaren. It's on YouTube. I'm the second person to check this -- I only stumbled upon it because I was looking at a random ICM list and it was the only included film without a runtime (now it has one). I guess I'm still 16 minutes shy of another 80-minute set of shorts.
6e. "Alaya" (Nathaniel Dorsky, 1987). Twenty-eight minutes, so this puts me over the 80-minute threshold for a second set of shorts. I guess what's most sensible is to just add up the lengths at the end of the month and divide by 80. "Alaya" is a sequence of gentle little nature scenes with sand, gravel, grass, etc. being rustled by wind and water. Sometimes landscapes, sometimes in miniature. The online version may not be optimal, because some parts were essentially "black screen" and I'm not sure they were intended to be.
7. "My 20th Century" (1989). The story needed more focus, but I really enjoyed this for the most part. Recommended to Guy Maddin fans. I think this is a popular film among the forum crowd, so I probably don't need to say more.
8. "Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania" (1972). Finally, my first Jonas Mekas feature. But it may be the last. Despite this being shorter than some of his other films, this was utter torture for me to get through. My ultimate film hell is a movie with steady narration, delivered by a voice with a hard-to-understand accent plus lo-fi sound that makes him/her even harder to understand.
9. "Kinetta" (2005). Early Yorgos Lanthimos. This one is a real chore, and its measly 4.8 IMDb rating serves as fair warning. Much of the film is essentially silent, following listless activities by three central characters. Two men and a woman. Gradually you realize the older character is sort of a policeman who recruits the other two to re-stage scenes of domestic violence for vague purposes of analysis? The woman is self-destructive...the "cop" likes BMW cars...the other man is a photographer...it doesn't add up to much. Just another example of Lanthimos's strange, detached-outsider take on humanity. I don't really understand what makes him tick.

10a. "Hamles" 1960 -- aka Little Hamlet (8min) -- Jerzy Skolimowski makes a fun, micro-version of "Hamlet," shot in the ruins of a derelict building somewhere. Essentially a silent film. I don't recall any dialogue...the soundtrack was all strange little piano bits and songs. It's on YouTube.
10b. "Orange" 1970 (3min)

[sol]

When I sat down to watch this, I was only intending to count it for the Benelux Challenge, but after reading the 366 Weird Films capsule review and pondering a bit about it, I've decided that this qualifies. The film has does have (very loosely defined) characters, but what plot exists totally folds in on itself by the halfway point (the second half of the film is clearly not narrative) and there are a lot of strange and unusual shots as in my screencap below:

Challenge as a Subversive Art

1. Blue (1993)
2. Limite (1931)
3. Heart of a Dog (2015)
4. Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez! (2012)
5. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
6. Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969)
7. Anticipation of the Night (1958)
8. Up Your Legs Forever (1971)
9. Rameau's Nephew (1974)
10. The Green Fog (2017)
11. Film Portrait (1972)

12. Vlees / Meat (2010)



While the remnants of a narrative can be deduced here, there is not much in the way of plot and as the film progresses any sense of reality is blurred. Are a dead man and a police inspector dead ringers, doppelgangers or one and the same person? While it is hard to work out what exactly the filmmakers were going for here, there is at least nary a boring moment to be had with so much weirdness going on. The film is very creatively shot too; lots of odd angles.

[insomnius]

St. Gloede, you keep citing "Insonius" instead of "Insomnius."

I think Insonius is that guy watching nothing but Netflix.

[St. Gloede]

St. Gloede, you keep citing "Insonius" instead of "Insomnius."

I think Insonius is that guy watching nothing but Netflix.

Sorry about that!

[insomnius]

17. From 60° North (William Raban, Begonia Tamarit, 1991) 7/10
18. Back Against the Wall (James Fotopoulos, 2002) 8/10

-- Eat (Vivian Ostrovsky, 1988) 14 min, 4/10
-- Sakura, Sakura (Ute Aurand, 2014) 2 min, 6/10
-- Ginza Strip (Richard Tuohy, 2014) 9 min, 6/10
-- El ángel exterminador (Los Ingrávidos, 2020) 5 min, 6/10
-- Orilla (Los Ingrávidos, 2019) 6 min, 7/10
-- La región más transparente (Los Ingrávidos, 2019) 7 min, 7/10

-- The Sun Quartet, Part 3: Conflagration (Los Ingrávidos, 2017) 16 min, 8/10



-- Candy Shop (Patrick Smith, 2019) 3 min, 6/10
-- Varvara / Barbara (Valeriy Pereverzev, 2019) 14 min, 3/10
-- This One Weird Trick (Joanie Wind, 2020) 7 min, 4/10
-- Muybridge's Disobedient Horses (Anna Vasof, 2018) 5 min, 5/10
-- Immaterial Los Angeles (Christopher McNamara, 2019) 8 min, 5/10
-- Queering di Teknolojik (Timothy Smith, 2019) 9 min, 5/10

-- Realms (Benjamin Rinehardt, 2018) 8 min, 8/10



-- Origin of Hair (Carrie Hawks, 2019) 1 min, 4/10

-- Vertigo A.I. (Chris Peters, 2020) 5 min, 7/10



-- I Have Sinned a Rapturous Sin (Maryam Tafakory, 2018) 8 min, 6/10
-- Emotions in Metal (Tommy Becker, 2019) 21 min, 6/10

19. Blackbird Descending - Tense Alignment (Malcolm le Grice, 1977) 8/10





Count: 19 features, 85 shorts (942 min/80 = 11.8)

List Describing My Progress

I'm an inconsistent rater, so consider the ratings as approximates.

1. Pays barbare / Babaric Land (Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi, 2013) 7/10
2. Junge Kiefern / Young Pines (Ute Aurand, 2011) 8/10
3. Nebel / Fog (Nicole Vögele, 2014) 7/10
4. Circumstantial Pleasures (Lewis Klahr, 2020) 10/10
5. Magnum Begynasium Bruxellense (Boris Lehman, 1978) 7/10
6. Likt vinden far min längtan (Nina Hedenius, 1988) 8/10
7. The Last Buffalo Hunt (Lee Anne Schmitt, 2011) 7/10
8. Materia Obscura (Jürgen Reble, 2009) 7/10
9. Either or Neither (Daniel Barnett, 2021) 9/10
10. Science Without Substance (Daniel Barnett, 2019) 8/10
11. 2084 (Klaus Wyborny, 1982) 3/10
12. Hommage an Ludwig van Beethoven (Klaus Wyborny, 2006) 7/10
13. The Hart of London (Jack Chambers, 1970) Rewatch, 9/10
14. Video Blues (Emma Tusell, 2019) 8/10
15. Where the Chocolate Mountains (Pat O'Neill, 2015) 9/10
16. L. Cohen (James Benning, 2018) 7/10
17. From 60° North (William Raban, Begonia Tamarit, 1991) 7/10
18. Back Against the Wall (James Fotopoulos, 2002) 8/10
19. Blackbird Descending - Tense Alignment (Malcolm le Grice, 1977) 8/10


Shorts (I'll add these to the tally when I'm done)
-- We Are Going Home (Jennifer Reeves, 1998) 10 min, 5/10
-- Rudi Dörfert (Schmelzdahin, 1984) 14 min, 5/10
-- In Diep Hust (Schmelzdahin, 1984) 5 min, 6/10
-- Weltenempfänger (Schmelzdahin, 1984) 5 min, 8/10
-- Fiddle-de-dee (Norman McLaren, 1947) 3 min, 8/10
-- Hortillonnages, amiens (Jacques Perconte, 2015) 27 min, 7/10
-- Le tempestaire, enregistrement n°1 (Jacques Perconte, 2020) 12 min, 8/10
-- Parties visible et invisible d'un ensemble sous tension (Emmanuel Lefrant, 2009) 7 min, 10/10
-- Pastourelle (Nathaniel Dorsky, 2010) 16 min, 9/10
-- Printtemps (Jacques Perconte, 2020) 7 min, 8/10
-- Feuerland ist abgebrannt (Schmelzdahin, 1985) 6 min, 5/10
-- Interno Tautium (Schmelzdahin, 1985) 3 min, 5/10
-- Death of a Marriage (Barbara Hammer, 1969) 3 min, 6/10
-- Black-Room Révélée (Michel Nedjar, 2004) 16 min, 7/10
-- Trois gouttes de mezcal dans une coupe de champagne (Teo Hernandez, 1983) 16 min, 6/10
-- Fragments de l'ange (Teo Hernandez, 1984) 18 min, 6/10
-- L'horrible tragédie (Jakobois, 1981) 21 min, 5/10
-- Du regard comme objet (b) (Jakobois, 1976) 7 min, 6/10
-- Miles (Yann Beauvais, 1983) 3 min, 5/10
-- Michel Journiac, quelques messages (Stéphane Marti, 1996) 12 min, 4/10
-- Site Visit (Maïa Cybelle Carpenter, 1998) 9 min, 8/10
-- Trasparenze (Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi, 1998) 6 min, 7/10
-- Shutter (Takahiko Iimura, 1971) 30 min, 10/10
-- Life After Love (Zachary Epcar, 2018) 8 min, 7/10
-- He Who Eats Children (Ben Russell, 2016) 26 min, 6/10
-- Film numéro deux (Christian Lebrat, 1976) 4 min, 7/10
-- Lightfall (Robert Todd, 2016) 15 min, 6/10
-- Evergreen (Robert Todd, 2005) 16 min, 7/10
-- Speak (Robert Todd, 1997) 7 min, 8/10
-- Fisherman (Robert Todd, 1998) Rewatch, 6 min, 7/10
-- Fable (Robert Todd, 1999) 15 min, 8/10
-- Couleurs délicieuses sur fond bleu (Christian Lebrat, 1976) 8 min, 7/10
-- Organisation I (Christian Lebrat, 1977) 5 min, 7/10
-- Wait (Robert Todd, 2000) 7 min, 7/10
-- Clip (Robert Todd, 2001) 3 min, 8/10
-- Dionysius (Charles Boultenhouse, 1963) 26 min, 8/10
-- Our Former Glory (Robert Todd, 2002) 9 min, 6/10
-- Trauma Victim (Robert Todd, 2002) 17 min, 8/10
-- Liminal Minimal (Christian Lebrat, 1977) 18 min, 8/10
-- Sydney Harbour Bridge (Paul Winkler, 1977) 13 min, 7/10
-- Narrows Inlet (David Rimmer, 1980) 8 min, 4/10
-- S=13 (Nobuhiro Aihara, 1984) 5 min, 7/10
-- Scènes de la vie française: La Ciotat (Rose Lowder, 1986) 31 min, 6/10
-- Oomagatoki (Nobuhiro Aihara, 1985) 4 min, 7/10
-- Réseaux (Christian Lebrat, 1978) 8 min, 7/10
-- Time Reversal Symmetry (Evann Siebens, 2018) 8 min, 5/10
-- Warning Triangle (Virgil Widrich, 2011) 6 min, 7/10
-- Trama (Christian Lebrat, 1980) 10 min, 7/10
-- Rodamorfosis (Alain Mazars, 1984) 21 min, 8/10
-- La méduse (Yvan Lagrange, 1988) 21 min, 7/10
-- Zwei Basiliken (Heinz Emigholz, 2018) 35 min, 7/10
-- Actus (Alain Mazars, 1984) 27 min, 7/10
-- Something to Touch That Is Not Corruption or Ashes or Dust (Mike Stoltz, 2020) 7 min, 5/10
-- Blue (Laura Magnusson, 2019) 12 min, 6/10
-- A Tiny Place That is Hard to Touch (Shelly Silver, 2019) 39 min, 8/10
-- Wind (Dana Sink, 2019) 2 min, 4/10
-- :::-:: (6-4) (Ana Valdés, 2017) 2 min, 5/10
-- Umbilical Cord to Heaven (Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan, 2019) 13 min, 8/10
-- Primary Stimulus (Robert Russett, 1977-80) 8 min, 10/10
-- Onkelschrompel (Schmelzdahin, 1986) 7 min, 7/10
-- E.R. (Schmelzdahin, 1986) 5 min, 7/10
-- Autoportrait au dispositif (Christian Lebrat, 1981) 9 min, 8/10
-- Holon (Christian Lebrat, 1982) 13 min, 8/10
-- Le moteur de l'action (A.M.D) (Christian Lebrat, 1985) 8 min, 5/10
-- Shot Film (Greg Pope, 2009) 4 min, 8/10
-- Out of Reach (Lori Felker, 2015) 4 min, 5/10
-- Not and Or (Simon Payne, 2014) 18 min, 7/10
-- Eat (Vivian Ostrovsky, 1988) 14 min, 4/10
-- Sakura, Sakura (Ute Aurand, 2014) 2 min, 6/10
-- Ginza Strip (Richard Tuohy, 2014) 9 min, 6/10
-- El ángel exterminador (Los Ingrávidos, 2020) 5 min, 6/10
-- Orilla (Los Ingrávidos, 2019) 6 min, 7/10
-- La región más transparente (Los Ingrávidos, 2019) 7 min, 7/10
-- The Sun Quartet, Part 3: Conflagration (Los Ingrávidos, 2017) 16 min, 8/10
-- Candy Shop (Patrick Smith, 2019) 3 min, 6/10
-- Varvara / Barbara (Valeriy Pereverzev, 2019) 14 min, 3/10
-- This One Weird Trick (Joanie Wind, 2020) 7 min, 4/10
-- Muybridge's Disobedient Horses (Anna Vasof, 2018) 5 min, 5/10
-- Immaterial Los Angeles (Christopher McNamara, 2019) 8 min, 5/10
-- Queering di Teknolojik (Timothy Smith, 2019) 9 min, 5/10
-- Realms (Benjamin Rinehardt, 2018) 8 min, 8/10
-- Origin of Hair (Carrie Hawks, 2019) 1 min, 4/10
-- Vertigo A.I. (Chris Peters, 2020) 5 min, 7/10
-- I Have Sinned a Rapturous Sin (Maryam Tafakory, 2018) 8 min, 6/10
-- Emotions in Metal (Tommy Becker, 2019) 21 min, 6/10

[insomnius]

St. Gloede, you keep citing "Insonius" instead of "Insomnius."

I think Insonius is that guy watching nothing but Netflix.

Sorry about that!

No worries.

[flavo5000]

5. Ayneh a.k.a. The Mirror (1997)
The Mirror is an interesting experiment. It’s going to be hard avoiding discussing its central conceit, but I’ll try. The film is basically about a little girl trying to find her way home from school. The focus is more on how different people react to the little girl and their willingness or unwillingness to help her. At a certain stage of the film, that point is basically doubled down on and given even more meaning behind what the movie is trying to convey. It’s an interesting idea although the film does drag a little in places and Panahi doesn’t really seem to have much of an ending.

6. Yume no ginga a.k.a. Labyrinth of Dreams (1997)
Labyrinth of Dreams is a story of a woman who becomes drawn to a man she believes may have murdered her friend. While the elements of the story are there, the flow is much more abstract. At times the film is so still that you feel as though you are looking at a sensuous tableau. While there is a mystery here (is he or isn’t he a killer?), the mood is what reigns. The film flows languidly like a small stream weaving back and forth but with an undercurrent of tension and unanswered questions. This is certainly not a film everyone will be able to get into but fans of slow cinema will find much to drink up in its textured, quiet waves.

7. Dead End Run (2003)
The last film Gakuryu Ishii made before another ten-year break after his back-to-back commercial failures of Gojoe and Electric Dragon, Dead End Run is a vibrant, visually inventive experimental anthology of three stories that take street crimes and distills them down into their purest and most artistically engaging forms. A dance of death rendered in lush immediately, a gangster standoff trapped in time, a hostage situation subverted and explored emotionally. I actually felt this was one of Ishii’s best films, really combining the best of his edgy punk sensibilities and his art film aesthetics into a captivating series of visuals that may be narratively slight but still very rewarding.

Spoiler

1. Take Me Naked (1966)
2. Blue Movie (1969)
3. Beauty #2 (1965)
4a. Outer and Inner Space (1966)
4b. Screen Test: Edie Sedgwick (1965)
4c. Blow Job (1963)
4d. Mario Banana I & II (1964)
4e. Screen Test: Ann Buchanan (1964)
4f. Screen Test: Nico (1966)
5. Ayneh a.k.a. The Mirror (1997)
6. Yume no ginga a.k.a. Labyrinth of Dreams (1997)
7. Dead End Run (2003)

[Perception de Ambiguity]

༡༣ Октябрь / October / Oktyabr (1927, Сергей Эйзенштейн/Sergei Eisenstein & Григорий Александров/Grigory Aleksandrov) 7

༡༤ Jour après jour / Day After Day (2006, un film de Jean-Daniel Pollet réalisé par Jean-Paul Fargier) 6


[3 min] Preserving Cultural Traditions in a Period of Instability (2004, Sebastian Brameshuber & Thomas Draschan) (2nd viewing) 5+ (from 4)
Technophobic Weltanschauung put to the test. It's arguable which side wins in this demonstration, and that's what makes it valueable.

[22 min] Rodamorfosis (1984, Alain Mazars) 8-
Living is round.

[12 min] Umbilical Cord to Heaven (2020, Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan) 5+

[30 min] Video Game (2006, Vipin Vijay) 6-

puis et avant / then and before

I Ici et maintenant / Here and Now (1968, Serge Bard) 6-
II Perret in Frankreich und Algerien / Perret in France and Algeria (2012, Heinz Emigholz) 7
III Wheel of Ashes (1968, Peter Emmanuel Goldman) 8
IV Okeanos (painted) (1972-2008, Myron Ort) 7
V Bruine Squamma (1977, Claudine Eizykman) 6-
VI Closed Vision (Close Vision) (Sixty Minutes in the Interior Life of a Man) (English-sound version) (1954, Marc'O) 3
VII Jajouka, Quelque chose de bon vient vers toi / Jajouka, Something Good Comes to You (English-language version) (2012, Eric & Marc Hurtado) 6-
VIII The Unknown Craftsman (2017, Amit Dutta) 8
IX Mare's Tail (1968, David Larcher) 9-
X ചിത്രസൂത്രം / Image Threads / Chitra Sutram (Vipin Vijay, 2011) 9
XI Ms Slavic 7 (2019, Sofia Bohdanowicz & Deragh Campbell) 5
XII Nachrichten aus der ideologischen Antike - Marx/Eisenstein/Das Kapital (full version) (2008, Alexander Kluge) 9-
XIII Октябрь / October / Oktyabr (1927, Сергей Эйзенштейн/Sergei Eisenstein & Григорий Александров/Grigory Aleksandrov) 7
XIV Jour après jour / Day After Day (2006, un film de Jean-Daniel Pollet réalisé par Jean-Paul Fargier) 6

piecemeals awaiting their final count:
[18 min] Battements solaires (2008, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd viewing) 7+ (from 6)
[9 min] Le canard à l'orange (2002, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd viewing) 6-
[1 min] Television de chambre (1984, Patrick Bokanowski) 7-
[4 min] L'envol / Soar (2018, Patrick Bokanowski) 6
[6 min] Au bord du lac (1994, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd viewing) 7 (from 3)
[12 min] Déjeuner du matin / Breakfast (1974, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd+ viewing) 7
[18 min] La Femme qui se poudre / The Woman Who Powders Herself (1974, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd+ viewing) 6
[4 min] Flammes (1998, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd viewing) 7-
[5 min] Éclats d'Orphée (2002, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd viewing) 3
[12 min] Wer immer hofft stirbt singend (2018, Alexander Kluge) 4+
[4 min] Palimpsest Palindrome (1965-1975, Myron Ort) 7
[37 min] Lost Book Found (1996, a film/video by Jem Cohen) 6+
[13 min] Lost and Found Films: ● Delay Exposure, ● EE Control, ● Vibration (1986 Summer, Toshio Matsumoto) 4
[17 min] The Plague Summer (1953, Chester Kessler) 3
[13 min] La mort du cerf / Une chasse à courre / Death of a Stag (1951, Dimitri Kirsanoff) 4-
[3 min] Celery Stalks at Midnight (1951, John Whitney Sr.) 6
[25 min] Y'a pas de fumée sans feu et en plus c'est vrai / No Smoke Without Fire and Anyway It's True (1996, Nathalie Magnan) 6-
[26 min] Image in the Snow (1952, A Film Poem by Willard Maas) 5-
[12 min] とてつもなく大きな / Totetsumonaku okina / Humongous! (2020, Aya Kawazoe) ?
[11 min] Square Inch Field (David Rimmer, 1968) 7+
[14 min] The Voices (1953, John Schmitz) 7
[2 min] "Schichlegruber Doing the Lambeth Walk" Assisted by the Gestapo "Hep-Cats" (1941, Charles Ridley) (rewatch)
[6 min] Danse macabre (1922, Dudley Murphy) (2nd viewing) 5+ (from 4)
[7 min] Parties visible et invisible d'un ensemble sous tension / The Visible and Invisible of a Body Under Tension (2009, Emmanuel Lefrant) 6
[10 min] Partage des eaux (2014, Jean-Claude Rousseau) 6
[30 min] The House of Science: A Museum of Fake News False Facts (1991, Lynne Sachs) 6
[9 min] Berliner Stilleben (1926/1931, László Moholy-Nagy) 6
[5 min] Weltenempfänger (1984, Schmelzdahin)
[5 min] Weltenempfänger (1984, Schmelzdahin) (2nd viewing) 6
[2 min] De occulta philosophia (1983, Gábor Bódy)
[2 min] De occulta philosophia (1983, Gábor Bódy) (2nd viewing) 5
[15 min] Poem 8 (1932, Emlen Etting) 7
[10 min] The Ambassadors (2018, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong) 3
[11 min] Migration (1969, David Rimmer) (2nd viewing) 7+
[6 min] Thimble Theater (1938-1968, Joseph Cornell, completed by Lawrence Jordan) 4
[17 min] In the Street (1948/52, James Agee & Helen Levitt & Janice Loeb) 6+
[8 min] Pursuit of Happiness (1940, Rudy Burckhardt) 5
[4 min] 1941 (1941, Francis Lee) 5
[30 min] Contra-Internet: Jubilee 2033 (2018, Zach Blas) 6
[9 min] Bells of Atlantis (1952-53, Ian Hugo & Len Lye) (3rd viewing) 8
[12 min] とてつもなく大きな / Totetsumonaku okina / Humongous! (2020, Aya Kawazoe) (2nd viewing) 6
[3 min] Preserving Cultural Traditions in a Period of Instability (2004, Sebastian Brameshuber & Thomas Draschan) (2nd viewing) 5+ (from 4)
[22 min] Rodamorfosis (1984, Alain Mazars) 8-
[12 min] Umbilical Cord to Heaven (2020, Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan) 5+
[30 min] Video Game (2006, Vipin Vijay) 6-

[sol]

We had some interesting discussion about the eligibility of this one on Page 1 of the thread. After finally watching it, I agree 100% that it should be eligible for this challenge. The plot is minimal and can barely be summed up (summaries vary greatly between sources) with the film much more reliant on insane montages and sped-up motion effects to capture mood and ambience. I absolutely loved it.

Challenge as a Subversive Art

1. Blue (1993)
2. Limite (1931)
3. Heart of a Dog (2015)
4. Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez! (2012)
5. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
6. Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969)
7. Anticipation of the Night (1958)
8. Up Your Legs Forever (1971)
9. Rameau's Nephew (1974)
10. The Green Fog (2017)
11. Film Portrait (1972)
12. Vlees / Meat (2010)

13. Tetsuo. (1989)



While this mostly consists of various metal transformations and penetrations, the whole thing is immensely watchable due to how insane it all is, and employing everything from sped-up shots to rapid-fire edits to stop motion animation, this is an amazing assault on the senses. Much like the best films by Cronenberg, the movie could also be read as a look at the relationship between our bodies and technology, questioning why we rely so heavily on metal.

[lynchs]

St. Gloede, you keep citing "Insonius" instead of "Insomnius."

I think Insonius is that guy watching nothing but Netflix.

[sol]

Challenge as a Subversive Art

1. Blue (1993)
2. Limite (1931)
3. Heart of a Dog (2015)
4. Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez! (2012)
5. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
6. Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969)
7. Anticipation of the Night (1958)
8. Up Your Legs Forever (1971)
9. Rameau's Nephew (1974)
10. The Green Fog (2017)
11. Film Portrait (1972)
12. Vlees / Meat (2010)
13. Tetsuo. (1989)

14. 11 x 14 (1977)



One of James Benning's first two films, this is quite similar in approach and yet vastly different to his later stuff. The technique is the same: lengthy shots edited together without any semblance of a narrative, but whereas his later films would focus on natural vistas and small roads bounded by nature, a large number of shots here feature people and several occur indoors. I found this less enchanting as a result, but with interesting shots/camerawork nonetheless.

[flavo5000]

We had some interesting discussion about the eligibility of this one on Page 1 of the thread. After finally watching it, I agree 100% that it should be eligible for this challenge. The plot is minimal and can barely be summed up (summaries vary greatly between sources) with the film much more reliant on insane montages and sped-up motion effects to capture mood and ambience. I absolutely loved it.

Challenge as a Subversive Art

1. Blue (1993)
2. Limite (1931)
3. Heart of a Dog (2015)
4. Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez! (2012)
5. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
6. Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969)
7. Anticipation of the Night (1958)
8. Up Your Legs Forever (1971)
9. Rameau's Nephew (1974)
10. The Green Fog (2017)
11. Film Portrait (1972)
12. Vlees / Meat (2010)

13. Tetsuo. (1989)



While this mostly consists of various metal transformations and penetrations, the whole thing is immensely watchable due to how insane it all is, and employing everything from sped-up shots to rapid-fire edits to stop motion animation, this is an amazing assault on the senses. Much like the best films by Cronenberg, the movie could also be read as a look at the relationship between our bodies and technology, questioning why we rely so heavily on metal.

Welcome to the wonderful fucked up world of Shin'ya Tsukamoto.

[insomnius]

St. Gloede, you keep citing "Insonius" instead of "Insomnius."

I think Insonius is that guy watching nothing but Netflix.

I prefer skinflicks.

[sol]

The plot is minimal and can barely be summed up (summaries vary greatly between sources) with the film much more reliant on insane montages and sped-up motion effects to capture mood and ambience. I absolutely loved it.

Welcome to the wonderful fucked up world of Shin'ya Tsukamoto.

I had actually already seen Haze from Tsukamoto, but yeah, this is more insane than that.

[lynchs]

I think Insonius is that guy watching nothing but Netflix.

I prefer skinflicks.

who doesn't?

[prodigalgodson]

3. Termite Gumbo (2020)

I decided to go all out on this one. Based on the advice of "Might be a good one to spark a j and zone out to", I did just that. Lit up, sat in my office, turned on the black light, turned off my other monitors, and focused solely on this.

Overall, I think I liked this one just slightly less than "Heart of Screenland," and I think a huge part of that is because I relate to the scenery a whole lot more. Part of what I like about driving around in the country (or exurbia, if you prefer) is that you get beautiful scenery, but it doesn't change quickly. You get to really soak it in and appreciate it. To this day, I'll still just head out and drive around in the middle of nowhere just to enjoy it. And I really liked the what I was seeing in the film - I just wanted to see it for a bit longer at a time. The cuts felt a little too quick for me to fully absorb and appreciate the scenes. This clocked in at 48m, and I think it could have been an hour or so with the same number of cuts and would have been a richer experience. Good stuff, I just wanted a tad more of it.

Knowing this is exurbia around LA, I really liked the juxtaposition of country roads with "urban" music, as well as with the industrial scapes that occasionally pop up. That helped sell the story of "yes, this is out in the country, but it's still reasonably close to a big urban area." It was a theme that kept popping up and a welcome one at that.

I'm most excited for part three, which I'll get to this month. I do need to re-up my pot supply, though.

Wow, thank you Max! Glad you appreciated the mix of landscapes.

I can understand your frustration with the editing, it was very much an experiment in that regard, and I'm not sure an entirely successful one (probably depends somewhat on the viewer's sensibilities). The concept was to bombard the viewer with a flow of striking images that evoke a wider world but are gone almost as soon as you can process them. I was very much inspired by the associative brand of hip-hop I enjoy, and which features heavily in this film, where successive rhyming fragments of imagery cohere into a multifaceted portrait of a subjective world. The title is actually an homage to the two guys I thank in the credits, synthesizing Manny Farber's concept of termite art with Roc Marciano's self-described "gumbo" of lyrics. The pace does mellow a bit in the last third, as the gumbo cools and I move more into my own music and aesthetic sensibilities. In that way the whole thing's kind of obliquely about artistic self-discovery.

I totally agree about the leisurely, reflective appeal of driving out and exploring the countryside. I love more meditative takes on the theme -- eg Benning, Mettler -- but I figured that's been done a lot, and I wanted to try something different. My personal preference errs on the side of languor, so I hope it doesn't swing too far to the other side when I really embrace it in Night and Smog.

If this sounds pretentious or nonsensical, feel free to disregard, but so glad you mostly enjoyed, I really appreciate the notes and support.

[sol]

Challenge as a Subversive Art

1. Blue (1993)
2. Limite (1931)
3. Heart of a Dog (2015)
4. Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez! (2012)
5. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
6. Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969)
7. Anticipation of the Night (1958)
8. Up Your Legs Forever (1971)
9. Rameau's Nephew (1974)
10. The Green Fog (2017)
11. Film Portrait (1972)
12. Vlees / Meat (2010)
13. Tetsuo. (1989)
14. 11 x 14 (1977)

15. RR (2007)



James Benning assembles various shots of trains going past his camera in this film titled after the common abbreviation for 'railroad'. Shots vary in terms of camera angles and distances; sometimes the camera looks up, sometimes down and some shots are further away than other shots are. Otherwise, this is pretty standard James Benning film, give or take a handful of occasions in which indistinct radio broadcasts are heard (to what end, no idea).

[sol]

Challenge as a Subversive Art

1. Blue (1993)
2. Limite (1931)
3. Heart of a Dog (2015)
4. Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez! (2012)
5. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)
6. Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969)
7. Anticipation of the Night (1958)
8. Up Your Legs Forever (1971)
9. Rameau's Nephew (1974)
10. The Green Fog (2017)
11. Film Portrait (1972)
12. Vlees / Meat (2010)
13. Tetsuo. (1989)
14. 11 x 14 (1977)
15. RR (2007)

16. Ruhr (2009)



This has a pretty great final shot, aptly selected for the poster, in which we see smoke billowing out of a building, beautifully illuminated against a moody sky. Benning adds much uncertainty and even tension to this shot as we occasionally hear sirens in the background (is the fire deliberately lit or under control?). The other five shots of the films are unfortunately less enchanting though and feel rather randomly chosen and spliced together.

[hurluberlu]

9. My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007) 7

xp:::avt

1. Joy of Learning / Le Gai Savoir (Jean-Luc Godard, 1969) 5+



2. Pravda (Jean-Luc Godard/Groupe Dziga Vertov, Paul Burron, 1970) 6-

Spoiler

3. Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard, 2010) 7



4. ɭeνiɑʈɦɑɳ (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel, 2012) 8



5. [80mins shorts]
[11mins] Dizziness / Memai (Takashi Ito, 2001) 7-
[1min] The Big Swallow (James Williamson, 1901) 7-
[19mins] Ballet mécanique* (Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy, 1924) 8+
[7mins] Symphonie diagonale (Viking Eggeling, 1924) 7
[28mins] Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1963) 4
[2mins] Schwechater (Peter Kubelka, 1958) 6
[12mins] A Movie (Bruce Conner, 1958) 7

*


6. Horse Money / Cavalo Dinheiro (Pedro Costa, 2014) 7+



7. Le révélateur (Philippe Garrel, 1968) 6+



8. Kill It and Leave This Town (Mariusz Wilczynski, 2020) 7+

[Perception de Ambiguity]

[10 min] Take Off (1972, Gunvor Nelson) 7+
Strip these with swing and bring the fun with a cosmic twist.
Strip these and these and these, until transcendence.

«Cut off your legs, for you are too slow
I cut off my hair, I won't need it where I'm gonna go
As the nine heads bleed, over all that is mine
Kiss the mouth of the scorpion baby
'cause Odin sayeth it's time»

[7 min] とんぼ / Dragonfly (1988, Nobuhiro Aihara) ?

[17 min] ...Absolyutno iz Nichego... / Absolutely from Nothing / Absolutely of Nothing (1997, Владимир Кобрин/Vladimir Kobrin) 6+

[3 min] Karen O & Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross: Immigrant Song (2011, David Fincher) 6+
Open me up and turn my skin into pages of a book, let them tell my story.
Obfuscation. Sado-maso tech masterpiece & legendary opening title sequence cum promo teaser and experimental film, with rhythm retained and flows abstracted in the glimmering pixels of a TV screen. And thus the representational turns into a river.


[8 min] The Fresh Lobster (1928, Billy Bletcher) 8
i must be dreaming #148

no spoiler

༡༥ Le clair de terre / Earth Light (1970, Guy Gilles) (2nd viewing) 10 (from 9)
Gilles' representational images in their endearment for the material world have a soulful presence shining as vibrant as life itself, but in their melancholic evocation revert to their representational state. Instead of being as vibrant as life itself, it's rather that what the images evoke is as vibrant as memory itself, now loaded with feelings who denied their access at the time. In the hands of the Guy who makes the hypothetical second-most poetic filmmaker look like a butcher in comparison formerly unacknowledged feelings now seem to find tender expression in memory. Moments of awareness, of being present, reemerge, woven into memory's narrative with impressionistic fervor. An ode or a lamentation of feeling via memory?

puis et avant / then and before

I Ici et maintenant / Here and Now (1968, Serge Bard) 6-
II Perret in Frankreich und Algerien / Perret in France and Algeria (2012, Heinz Emigholz) 7
III Wheel of Ashes (1968, Peter Emmanuel Goldman) 8
IV Okeanos (painted) (1972-2008, Myron Ort) 7
V Bruine Squamma (1977, Claudine Eizykman) 6-
VI Closed Vision (Close Vision) (Sixty Minutes in the Interior Life of a Man) (English-sound version) (1954, Marc'O) 3
VII Jajouka, Quelque chose de bon vient vers toi / Jajouka, Something Good Comes to You (English-language version) (2012, Eric & Marc Hurtado) 6-
VIII The Unknown Craftsman (2017, Amit Dutta) 8
IX Mare's Tail (1968, David Larcher) 9-
X ചിത്രസൂത്രം / Image Threads / Chitra Sutram (Vipin Vijay, 2011) 9
XI Ms Slavic 7 (2019, Sofia Bohdanowicz & Deragh Campbell) 5
XII Nachrichten aus der ideologischen Antike - Marx/Eisenstein/Das Kapital (full version) (2008, Alexander Kluge) 9-
XIII Октябрь / October / Oktyabr (1927, Сергей Эйзенштейн/Sergei Eisenstein & Григорий Александров/Grigory Aleksandrov) 7
XIV Jour après jour / Day After Day (2006, un film de Jean-Daniel Pollet réalisé par Jean-Paul Fargier) 6
XV Le clair de terre / Earth Light (1970, Guy Gilles) (2nd viewing) 10 (from 9)

piecemeals awaiting their final count:
[18 min] Battements solaires (2008, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd viewing) 7+ (from 6)
[9 min] Le canard à l'orange (2002, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd viewing) 6-
[1 min] Television de chambre (1984, Patrick Bokanowski) 7-
[4 min] L'envol / Soar (2018, Patrick Bokanowski) 6
[6 min] Au bord du lac (1994, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd viewing) 7 (from 3)
[12 min] Déjeuner du matin / Breakfast (1974, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd+ viewing) 7
[18 min] La Femme qui se poudre / The Woman Who Powders Herself (1974, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd+ viewing) 6
[4 min] Flammes (1998, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd viewing) 7-
[5 min] Éclats d'Orphée (2002, Patrick Bokanowski) (2nd viewing) 3
[12 min] Wer immer hofft stirbt singend (2018, Alexander Kluge) 4+
[4 min] Palimpsest Palindrome (1965-1975, Myron Ort) 7
[37 min] Lost Book Found (1996, a film/video by Jem Cohen) 6+
[13 min] Lost and Found Films: ● Delay Exposure, ● EE Control, ● Vibration (1986 Summer, Toshio Matsumoto) 4
[17 min] The Plague Summer (1953, Chester Kessler) 3
[13 min] La mort du cerf / Une chasse à courre / Death of a Stag (1951, Dimitri Kirsanoff) 4-
[3 min] Celery Stalks at Midnight (1951, John Whitney Sr.) 6
[25 min] Y'a pas de fumée sans feu et en plus c'est vrai / No Smoke Without Fire and Anyway It's True (1996, Nathalie Magnan) 6-
[26 min] Image in the Snow (1952, A Film Poem by Willard Maas) 5-
[12 min] とてつもなく大きな / Totetsumonaku okina / Humongous! (2020, Aya Kawazoe) ?
[11 min] Square Inch Field (David Rimmer, 1968) 7+
[14 min] The Voices (1953, John Schmitz) 7
[2 min] "Schichlegruber Doing the Lambeth Walk" Assisted by the Gestapo "Hep-Cats" (1941, Charles Ridley) (rewatch)
[6 min] Danse macabre (1922, Dudley Murphy) (2nd viewing) 5+ (from 4)
[7 min] Parties visible et invisible d'un ensemble sous tension / The Visible and Invisible of a Body Under Tension (2009, Emmanuel Lefrant) 6
[10 min] Partage des eaux (2014, Jean-Claude Rousseau) 6
[30 min] The House of Science: A Museum of Fake News False Facts (1991, Lynne Sachs) 6
[9 min] Berliner Stilleben (1926/1931, László Moholy-Nagy) 6
[5 min] Weltenempfänger (1984, Schmelzdahin)
[5 min] Weltenempfänger (1984, Schmelzdahin) (2nd viewing) 6
[2 min] De occulta philosophia (1983, Gábor Bódy)
[2 min] De occulta philosophia (1983, Gábor Bódy) (2nd viewing) 5
[15 min] Poem 8 (1932, Emlen Etting) 7
[10 min] The Ambassadors (2018, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong) 3
[11 min] Migration (1969, David Rimmer) (2nd viewing) 7+
[6 min] Thimble Theater (1938-1968, Joseph Cornell, completed by Lawrence Jordan) 4
[17 min] In the Street (1948/52, James Agee & Helen Levitt & Janice Loeb) 6+
[8 min] Pursuit of Happiness (1940, Rudy Burckhardt) 5
[4 min] 1941 (1941, Francis Lee) 5
[30 min] Contra-Internet: Jubilee 2033 (2018, Zach Blas) 6
[9 min] Bells of Atlantis (1952-53, Ian Hugo & Len Lye) (3rd viewing) 8
[12 min] とてつもなく大きな / Totetsumonaku okina / Humongous! (2020, Aya Kawazoe) (2nd viewing) 6
[3 min] Preserving Cultural Traditions in a Period of Instability (2004, Sebastian Brameshuber & Thomas Draschan) (2nd viewing) 5+ (from 4)
[22 min] Rodamorfosis (1984, Alain Mazars) 8-
[12 min] Umbilical Cord to Heaven (2020, Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan) 5+
[30 min] Video Game (2006, Vipin Vijay) 6-
[10 min] Take Off (1972, Gunvor Nelson) 7+
[7 min] とんぼ / Dragonfly (1988, Nobuhiro Aihara) ?
[17 min] ...Absolyutno iz Nichego... / Absolutely from Nothing / Absolutely of Nothing (1997, Владимир Кобрин/Vladimir Kobrin) 6+
[3 min] Karen O & Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross: Immigrant Song (2011, David Fincher) 6+
[8 min] The Fresh Lobster (1928, Billy Bletcher) 8

[Ebbywebby]

1. The Catherine Wheel (1982, feature)...David Byrne/Twyla Tharp dance collaboration
2a. Solstice (1971, 35 min)...Walter Ungerer...enigmatic nonsense in a forest
2b. Il Caso Valdemar 1936 (12 min)...damn interesting horror short that's shockingly gory for its era
2c. La maison tranquille 1901 (2 min)...Melies
2d. Animation School Dropout 2015 (1 min)...utter trash
2e. Paris s'en va 1981 (30 min) -- Rivette outtakes from Le Pont du Nord
3. Hands Up! 1981...interesting Skolimowski film where he repackages material from a 1967 project that the government shut down
4. "Ici et Ailleurs" (1976)...political Godard. Not as unwatchable as some of his other films from the period. Officially 53 minutes.
5. "Three Crowns of a Sailor" 1983.
6a. "Sonne, Halt!" (1962)...a strange, jagged Austrian short that's essentially flashed scenes from a vacation in Italy? The subtitles seemed very rough and undercut my comprehension. I'm the ninth person to check it. Only 24 minutes, so it doesn't help my tally on its own.
6b. "The Color of Love" (1994)...only 10 minutes long, so I'm still working toward a set of shorts counting as one entry. If I understand the scoring system correctly. Peggy Ahwesh takes an old, rotting stag-reel clip of a homely threesome in bed, and aggressively treats it with color splotches and the like. Astor Piazzolla's instantly identifiable brand of tango music is added as score. The result is somewhere between Brakhage and Bill Morrison. The version I saw had such terrible resolution that it significantly impeded my enjoyment.
6c. "Threnody" (2004)...20 minutes. Nathaniel Dorsky. A meandering sequence of tight shots of various scenes, often involving flickering, wavering motion and mostly but not entirely set in nature. The film is 100% silent. I can't say that I really understand what Dorsky hopes to evoke.
6d. "Sonata for Pen, Brush and Ruler" (1968)...fun 10-minute short involving handpainting a negative a la Len Lye or Norman McLaren. It's on YouTube. I'm the second person to check this -- I only stumbled upon it because I was looking at a random ICM list and it was the only included film without a runtime (now it has one). I guess I'm still 16 minutes shy of another 80-minute set of shorts.
6e. "Alaya" (Nathaniel Dorsky, 1987). Twenty-eight minutes, so this puts me over the 80-minute threshold for a second set of shorts. I guess what's most sensible is to just add up the lengths at the end of the month and divide by 80. "Alaya" is a sequence of gentle little nature scenes with sand, gravel, grass, etc. being rustled by wind and water. Sometimes landscapes, sometimes in miniature. The online version may not be optimal, because some parts were essentially "black screen" and I'm not sure they were intended to be.
7. "My 20th Century" (1989). The story needed more focus, but I really enjoyed this for the most part. Recommended to Guy Maddin fans. I think this is a popular film among the forum crowd, so I probably don't need to say more.
8. "Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania" (1972). Finally, my first Jonas Mekas feature. But it may be the last. Despite this being shorter than some of his other films, this was utter torture for me to get through. My ultimate film hell is a movie with steady narration, delivered by a voice with a hard-to-understand accent plus lo-fi sound that makes him/her even harder to understand.
9. "Kinetta" (2005). Early Yorgos Lanthimos. This one is a real chore, and its measly 4.8 IMDb rating serves as fair warning. Much of the film is essentially silent, following listless activities by three central characters. Two men and a woman. Gradually you realize the older character is sort of a policeman who recruits the other two to re-stage scenes of domestic violence for vague purposes of analysis? The woman is self-destructive...the "cop" likes BMW cars...the other man is a photographer...it doesn't add up to much. Just another example of Lanthimos's strange, detached-outsider take on humanity. I don't really understand what makes him tick.
10a. "Hamles" 1960 -- aka Little Hamlet (8min) -- Jerzy Skolimowski makes a fun, micro-version of "Hamlet," shot in the ruins of a derelict building somewhere. Essentially a silent film. I don't recall any dialogue...the soundtrack was all strange little piano bits and songs. It's on YouTube.
10b. "Orange" 1970 (3min)

This challenge wearies me, because of the classification problem. I don't know whether "Clean, Shaven" or "Room Service 75" qualify or not but I've recently seen "La Paresse" (1986) and I suppose an eight-minute Chantal Akerman short passes the test. (IMDb says it's 14 minutes, for some reason.)

[Ebbywebby]

-- Candy Shop (Patrick Smith, 2019) 3 min, 6/10

I only see "Gun Shop" (same director/year/runtime) on IMDb...are they two different films?