Black Ice

One of Stan Brakhage's many experimental shorts features a mixture of what looks like blue and black shapes zigzagging across a white background. Like most of Brakhage's works, "Black Ice" isn't a narrative work. It's one step away from an acid trip. I don't know whether or not this counts as art for art's sake. The point is that Brakhage obviously liked to see what he could do with images and sounds, a far cry from the mindless assaults on the senses in Michael Bay's movies. It's nothing profound, but it's an interesting look at what cinema can be in less than two minutes. Available on YouTube.

Generally speaking, I get more out of Stan Brakhage's "personal" films – like 'Window Water Baby Moving (1959)' or 'I… Dreaming (1988)' – than I do from his more abstract efforts. However, despite 'Black Ice (1994)' falling into the latter category, it was certainly visual striking. Reportedly inspired by a tumble on black ice that required him to receive cataract surgery in both eyes, the film attempts to replicate the sensation of unconsciousness, of being momentarily robbed of one's vision and mental perception. In this sense, Brakhage succeeds: watching 'Black Ice' is a bit like flailing endlessly into a bottomless pit, though my first impression was of falling through outer space, which is probably about the same thing. Whereas many of the director's films, such as 'Mothlight (1963),' appear trapped in a single dimensional plane, this one – utilising the effects of an optical printer – seems to be constructed from two visual planes, one static and another moving towards the camera. The primarily blue and black visuals, flickering like the fractured light from a kaleidoscope, progressively seem to shift past you, layer upon layer of black ice smoothly passing by. Though the blues, blacks and whites are those colours we recall most readily, Brakhage also includes the occasional flittering deep red or orange, representing life and warmth – perhaps the solitary vestiges of consciousness and emotion that remain in this cold, impassive hole of darkness.

Black Ice (1994)

*** (out of 4)

From what I've read, this film was inspired by the director sliding on a patch of black ice, which required him to have eye surgery. The film has a lot of the same style and images of Glaze of Cathexis so I wouldn't have been able to tell the film's apart had someone just shown me both of them without letting me know the titles. Even though I found this one familiar, it still worked as a visual treat for the eyes. Once again we get all sorts of rich and vivid colors flashing on the screen, running just under 90-seconds, and the film keeps you glued the entire way. Since I'm still new to the director I'm not sure if he ever uses sound or not but I think the silence in the films really help draw you in and I can't imagine watching these with any music.

I don't know how the effect was achieved, but this is how I imagine a strobed tomographic trip through stained glass would appear. Iridescent colours, mostly blues, fragmented by black, emerge and appear to slowly approach the viewer before fading out to form new patterns. The effect is like an animated Jackson Pollock painting, but more soothing than the analogy might suggest due to the fairly slow progression 'through' whatever is being photographed, and the fact the blocks of light remain on screen for varying lengths of time, meaning that the longer lasting ones serve to anchor the viewer as the others change. Add to this a narrative rhythm that structures the film and there's a strong impression of a story waiting to be read in the phantasmagoria. A dense and dazzling few minutes.

Another one of Stan Brakhage's many mesmerizing hand-painted short films, BLACK ICE draws the viewer down into a cacophony of both beauty and horror.

Inspired by a bad fall on a patch of black ice (that ultimately resulted in Brakhage's need for eye surgery), the filmmaker gives us something of a dreamlike descent through the fear and refractions of closed-eye vision regarding such an event. With one layer of rapidly cascading shards of colour and a second layer of similar abstract pieces slowly zooming, scuttling and dissolving towards the viewer out of the dark void of utter blackness, it does not become hard to feel as if one is almost being sucked down to some terrible peril as well. The wonderful use of counter-pacing between the layers -- which must be largely credited to collaborator and optical printer Sam Bush, also -- and the more abundant use of deep black space to sharpen the bursts of rich colour are what really helps define BLACK ICE as an exquisite experimental piece, even amongst the wealth of Brakhage's other painted-light pieces. The result is both a stunning visual and metaphysical achievement of depth on screen. And beautifully urgent, as well.

8/10. A concisely contrived "accident" of colour and lost light.