Glas

GLASS may be the perfect non-cinema verite documentary film ever made. It tells the story of hand-made vs. machine-made glass products through the brilliant use of visual language. Color, movement, music, sound effects and editing combine to illustrate the contrast between the two types of glass products: artistic and utilitarian. And the difference is clearly and entertainingly presented without a word of narration. This is a film that truly contains not one unneeded shot The jazz score accompanying the visuals can stand on its own as music, yet it is brilliantly married to the diverse and unique portraits of the individual glass blowers featured in the film - all of it in just eleven minutes!

"Glas" is presented in film schools as an exemplar of what is known as a "process documentary." There's no voice-over to either guide or otherwise influence the viewer. The film is simply shot-after-shot of glass-making. It might have been underwritten by the Dutch bottle industry, because that seems to be its main thrust: the manufacture of bottles. Lotsa shots of mechanization, from wide-shots to mediums to macro close-ups. This film is usually shown as an intended primer for aspiring cinematographers: the exposures and lighting presented particular challenges to the DP. One curious artifact: At the end of the film, there's a credit for someone named, "Ouim Ouenders." Given the Dutch translation/ transposition, vis-a-vis spelling, who, exactly, is that guy? Someone we all might otherwise know?

I'd say filmmaker Wim Wenders. QUOTE: "Glas" is presented in film schools as an exemplar of what is known as a "process documentary." There's no voice-over to either guide or otherwise influence the viewer. The film is simply shot-after-shot of glass-making. It might have been underwritten by the Dutch bottle industry, because that seems to be its main thrust: the manufacture of bottles. Lotsa shots of mechanization, from wide-shots to mediums to macro close-ups. This film is usually shown as an intended primer for aspiring cinematographers: the exposures and lighting presented particular challenges to the DP. One curious artifact: At the end of the film, there's a credit for someone named, "Ouim Ouenders." Given the Dutch translation/ transposition, vis-a-vis spelling, who, exactly, is that guy? Someone we all might otherwise know? UNQUOTE

Bert Haanstra's Oscar-winning short subject about glassmaking is a lot of fun to watch. It has a nice jazzy score that complements the visuals, especially when the glassblower puffs out his cheeks to make a hollow object, with chops as large as Louis Armstrong's, or when one of the workers in an industrial glass plant uses the still-hot glass to light his cigarette.

It's a well deserved Oscar, and I wouldn't imply otherwise. However, given that the major studios, and even the minor ones, had given up regular short subject production, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences effectively opened the category to foreign pictures.

Ostensibly a documentary about the art of Dutch glassblowing, and engagingly illustrative at that - with a gently jazz soundtrack - it gradually evolves into something altogether more thought-provoking. Back to the actual blowing, though, and that's quite fascinating to watch - the creative and delicate artistry at work. Perfect geometrical shapes all from a ball or string of molten sand - they look like balloons sometimes. In and out of the white hot ovens. What it slowly gives way to, though, is almost as interesting as the process becomes more mechanised. Not so much with the intricate designs, but the rudimentary bottle making - until, that is, the conveyor goes wrong and it's briefly quite comedic then. Moral? I suppose mechanisation is unstoppable now, but though the handmade might be slower and more expensive, the top only comes off when it's supposed to!