The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes

I know it is a violation of the terms and conditions to focus on other user-comments but 'The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes' demands an examination that acknowledges reception above all other interpretative modes. I find it fascinating that many of the respondents interpret this film as something more than simply the photographing of a number of autopsies. First, this demonstrates a desire to bestow meaning on anything, whether it is elicited or not. Secondly, it exhibits a desire to deify anything created by an acknowledged artist-in this case avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage-regardless of its true material worth. Ultimately, I think this is the wrong way to approach this film, which is simply the filming of a series of autopsies, nothing more, nothing less. Brakhage has stated that the metaphorical hermeneutic code is endemic in the material. This is true, but the notion that a dead body being stripped of its components says anything significant about the nature of life and humanity is highly contentious. Brakhage invests no artistic design in his film; he simply photographs the morgue workers in operation. Yes, we see imagery that is at turns repulsive and often saddening, but would we imagine anything else. It might be argued that, given the film's title, Brakhage is trying to demystify death. However, films like these are de rigueur in medical classes and therefore this 'scene' is not hidden from the world. People actually deal with it everyday. Those who have no exposure to the dead or the human anatomy will most likely have no interest in the material. So, once again, what is this film's worth? It is not artistic (despite other users trying to consign their own aesthetic design on the film), it is not useful, and it fails as a demystification of death or the human body. Ultimately, 'The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes' is a failure as a film and offers only limited interest as a curio.

This 30 minute documentary on three human autopsies is one of the most disturbing yet intruiging things that I have ever seen on film. If you can imagine it, they show it. Everything but the corpses faces are shown. But I am willing to bet that if Brakhage was allowed to show the faces he would have. This movie delves into the idea of human curiosity and vision like never done before. A thinker.

Before I begin this review I must mention that this film is absolutely not for the faint of heart.

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'The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes' was directed by experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage - arguably one of the most creative and original filmmakers of all time.

This film consists entirely of footage of real life autopsies being performed and as a result is extremely graphic, but is nevertheless an interesting look at the human body and how autopsies are performed.

I should also note that the film is completely silent, which I feel only adds to the uneasy feeling while watching.

Overall, I recommend this to anyone interested in this subject matter or film in general who can stomach 31 minutes of corpses having autopsies performed on them.

7/10

The titles comes from the literal translation for the Greek word 'Autopsy". And that's exactly what this film is . 32 minutes of intense, hand-held photographing of several autopsies in extremely explicit detail.

While the film is, by nature, shocking, and sometimes hard to watch, it's far from exploitational or sensationalistic. It invites us to meditate on life, death, the body, what miracles we all are, how fragile we all are, how alone we all are in the end, and yet how alike we all are. What is a human? What were these people like in life? Are all we are really just the blobby masses of brain we see being removed, leaving only empty skull cavities? Why is the film stomach turning? Why is it so hard to look at what is inside us all? Brakhage raises all these questions, and they are valuable and unsettling to consider.

That said, for me, the film could have been shorter. It started to feel repetitive, which I'm sure was part of the intent (watching ourselves become inured to images that only minutes earlier seemed deeply disturbing), but there was a point near the end where I started to feel I had gotten what I was going to already, including that last idea.

Most of the time I'm not really all that much a fan of Brakhage's "live action"-films. Generally, I feel they lack the evocative and creative elements of his hand-painted or more abstract films. This film though, was very engaging and interesting for several reasons. While many of Brakhage's films deal with the concept of vision and perception, very few of them incorporate standard first-person perspectives. They tend to take a more irregular and perhaps chaotic approach to the very activity of seeing and how Brakhage shows things in his "live action"-films are rarely how one would normally perceive it in the real world. His films do give different perspectives though, I think, to show the nature of things and aspects of life in a new way. And this one is a very good example of just that.

"The Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes." A genius title that is so multifaceted in this context. Firstly, it's the direct translation of the world "autopsy" which this film, on the surface level, is about. Secondly, it seems to be an important guiding sentence, not only for this film, but for much of Brakhage's work. Regardless of what Brakhage had in mind when making his films, I think anyone who watch them put their own meaning to it. They see with their own eyes and thus gives it meaning. This film is so much more than just an experimental take on documenting the work of pathologists though. Watching it, one is placed face to face with death. One is placed face to face with people working with the dead, all the time. Their working days are surrounded by death. I think this picture can get one to know death better, look it in the eye and accept its inevitable presence. Driven by curiosity, the camera shows in great detail every part of the human body being weighted, dissected, seemingly being totally shred to pieces. At times it's unsettling to watch. But then you take a step back and think about the purpose of it all. This is a serious practice, advanced and perfected through centuries of development. We see craftsmen, doing the work that probably very few of us would ever want to do or even think about. And in the end, what they do is a benefit for the humankind as much as whatever anyone do.

It's all very natural. The things shown that we may find repulsive and disgusting, is what we all are made of. And Brakhage's quick, unusually explorative style highlights this in a very admirable way. The lack of sound of course just keeps the focus entirely on the dead human body, torn apart with deep respect.