SURPLUS HARDWARE: Snow's Wavelength


Question : towards what are we moving?

Wavelength was filmed in December 1966 (you can see fairy lights in the shop window opposite) in a Manhattan loft-space. It is credited simply to 'Snow' [[[as are the much shorter Standard Time (1967) and BREAKFAST (Table Top Dolly) ('1972-6'), which were shown after Wavelength in Leeds on the rainy, damp, somewhat chilly afternoon of Saturday, 30th July, 2005 at a screening arranged by Dennis Hopkins and William Rose under the banner of their Lumen organisaton. Billed as 3 Films By Michael Snow, the event was priced at £4.50 and ran for a total of approximately 70 minutes.]]]

The film-maker presenting himself as Snow was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1929. In the same city in 1971, Darrin O'Brien was born. He later became a musical performer, a vocalist best known for fusing rap and reggae styles. His single Informer, taken from the saucily-entitled LP 12 Inches of Snow, topped the US Billboard 'Hot 100' chart for seven weeks in 1993. He was christened SNOW by a colleague, the initials standing for Superb Notorious Outrageous Whiteboy. As far as I can ascertain, Snow and SNOW have yet to collaborate, although Michael Snow is also a musician. Working mainly in the avant-garde, he plays the piano - and I am told (informed?) that he does so somewhat badly.

(Michael) Snow has been described as "Canada's best-known living artist". He is best known for his work in the field of film. Wavelength has been described as "the most discussed and admired experimental film ever made." Snow himself describes it as "a definitive statement of pure film" - this was read out by Will Rose as part of his introduction to the Leeds screening.

It is Sunday, 31st July, 2005, 21:13 in Sunderland, UK. I am in a room.

Wavelength runs for 45 or 46 minutes, and consists of numerous short sequences edited together to give a rough approximation of a single shot. Wavelength does not consist of a single shot: indeed the point of the film may well be the divergence between what it is and what it presents itself as. It is constructed in the form of a single, very slow zoom, the camera being placed at one end of the Manhattan loft. The image zooms in on the opposite wall, which features four large windows through which the tops of passing trucks can be occasionally seen. We can also make out the frontage of a store selling SURPLUS HARDWARE. There are Christmas lights in the window of the shop.

Four 'human events' take place as the camera 'zooms' in on the photographs attached to the wall between two of the windows with drawing-pins. A large piece of furniture, perhaps a cupboard or wardrobe, is moved into place. A short time later two women enter the space, seemingly having a break from work: they listen to Strawberry Fields Forever which is audible on a scratchy recording (radio? record player). When they depart, the soundtrack is given over to THE TONE which rises very slowly from low pitch to high pitch for the remainder of the film.

During this period two further Human Events take place: a man [[Hollis Frampton, also a prominent figure in avant-garde film]] wanders into shot, or rather staggers, and falls to the ground, apparently dead. Some time later, a woman [[Amy Taubin, later to obtain some fame as a film critic]] discovers the "body" and reports this by means of a telephone call. She departs and the camera continues its zoom in on one of the photographs attached to the wall. It is the same shape as the cinema screen itself. As we get close enough to see what it is, we realise that there are in fact TWO photographs, one pinned on top of the other.

This review will not reveal the content of the photographs into which Wavelength's camera has zoomed. A pieta? A family composition? The initial view of the loft? You will have to find out for yourself. If, that is, you get the chance: screenings of Wavelength are now quite rare, though this only adds to the the mystique. Snow also has a legendary reputation as one of the key figures - along with Stan Brakhage of the post-war North American avant-garde cinema. From what I have read of his writings, and from what seen of his work, however - Wavelength, Standard Time, Breakfast and his most recent feature *Corpus Callosum - he is fortunate to be bracketed with an artist as talented as Brakhage. And his ability would seem to be some way inferior to that of James Benning.

Question : where is this review going?

Wavelength is easily the most accomplished of the four Snow works which I have seen. I was intrigued by the gap between my presuppositions - I expected a quicker, smoother zoom, and much more going on - and the film itself. The image is anything but constant, and it is rapidly apparent that what we are seeing is a patchwork of clips edited together to give the impression of unity. Some considerable time passes - days and nights. At times the screen goes blank - elsewhere Snow deploys all kinds of filters and distortions. Colours, inversions, negative, changes of film-stock. Years might well be passing before our eyes: we seem to float free of time altogether. We gauge our progress by observing the margins: the neon lights on the roof, the edges of the windows. The roughness of the projection becomes a key part of the experience: everything is permitted. Even scratches on the film itself become part of the 'fun': each print unique, decaying through time. Surplus hardware.

The technique of the film's production becomes its subject. Without technical knowledge, the viewer wonders whether this is, in effect, a zoom at all: surely numerous lenses would have to be used, as the image is mostly in focus throughout. The slow zoom in on a key photograph anticipates Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

Time, says Burroughs, is the thing which ends.

It is 21:29 in Sunderland. Gulls cry. A car passes, its headlights on. Gulls cry in the distance.

Time is the thing which ends.

Young*
XXth July 2005

WAVELENGTH : [7/10] : USA 1967 : 'Snow' (i.e. Michael SNOW') : 46 mins
seen at Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds (UK) 30th July 2005 - one-off public show

* Neil Young, born Toronto 1945. Neil Young, born Easington 1971.