Crack Glass Eulogy

CRACK GLASS EULOGY is not a film that one might immediately take to liking; it's slow, dark, and purveys an ominous feeling through both the subdued imagery and sparse musical soundtrack. But it also grows on the viewer with repeated screenings and in that is something unique and worthwhile.

Shot in mostly pallid blues and greys, underexposed, with frequent fades and slow lap-dissolves the film takes on a "lurking" feeling, as if the viewer (through the vision unfolding on the screen) were drifting half-asleep through a cold, dark city devoid of sunlight. It doesn't feel good. Added to this is a stark musical composition by Rick Corrigan that is reminiscent of un-metered water-drops -- if water-drops sounded like light computer blips and flutes. Together, the whole piece becomes something that is initially off- putting and yet compelling enough to warrant further examination at the same time. It sinks into one's mind like a recurring bad memory of something lost or of the process of dispersing. Full with it's own emptiness.

I have really come to like this Brakhage film for it's subtlety and languid pacing, both on it's own and in consideration of his often more frenetically paced works. CRACK GLASS EULOGY is a duller gem that might be overlooked, but still as precious and valuable as any other that would be taken to right away. 8/10.

This is my favorite *photographed* Brakhage film, for what it's worth. He manages to reach a distinct, hazy, wondrous poetry to seeing a city and certain suburban areas in perpetual night time. The sounds are dischordant and yet it all feels of a piece, like we're supposed to be receiving a morse code from another dinensiom that we may never configure.

The editing can also get under your skin if you let it; at times all one might see are rocks or ocean waves, and yet that seems organic to this all too. Im not sure what the title refers to, but Im glad Brakhage made this particular film. It's not as mind blowing as For Marilyn ir Dog Star Man, but it gets at something that is at once hard to describe and yet it has the weight of art because anyone can read into it as they may (for me... Aliens, dude, they're here).