In this week’s lecture, scenes from Scott Ruo’s ‘Four Images’, Brian Hill’s ‘Drinking for England’ and Chantal Akerman’s ‘D’Est’ were screened. Choose one of these, and consider, in a single paragraph, what might have intrigued, interested, displeased or repelled you.
I found the scenes from Chantal Akerman’s D’Est quite interesting. I felt discomforted at first with the tracking shot of the desolated, snowy street and lines of anonymous people. But then I liked the way in which Akerman makes the scene speaks. It portrays not only the human faces but also the spaces between people; what is showing and what is hiding. There is no dialogue; yet a world of sounds and background noises. The camera records people’s silences, it constructs the abstract emotional qualities such as the endless cold, and the mundane lives, the spiritual emptiness. I have ever come upon this use of camera. Akerman pans the camera in a straight line like a journey. I remembered there is a young boy, at one time he is in the edge of the frame and he keeps walking on the way to across the frame. He appears on screen again when the camera continues to pan; at some point some people who I have seen before show up on the frame again. I have that anticipation to look for them. I guess it is an idea of the film, the hope and the hopelessness.
Listen to the first 10 minutes of Glenn Gould’s radio documentary, “The Idea of North”.
The idea of North 10min.wav or Files are here (experimenting with different sizes and file types) If possible, use headphones. Record your impressions in a paragraph or two.
It is confusing of the overlapping of male and female’s voices. I am not able to concentrate on either of the voices. I do not understand what the woman is talking about most of the times; she does not speak very clearly and her tone is not interesting. Sometimes the background noise probably is too loud that makes the guy’s voice unclear and is distracting. I just do not find this radio documentary engaging, as it is a piece of unsettling recording.