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ence from the Museum. Within a few minutes, there was an argument between those who were annoyed by the pace of the film and those whowhatever their reaction to the filmwere annoyed by the arrogance of the others. There was almost a fight. Through all of this, I found the film long, but gorgeous, beautifully meditative. Do you remember early reactions to that film?
Noren:
I remember a fistfight. It was at the Modern [Museum of Modern Art], where the audience was sometimes unruly. Someone was talking during the film, and the person in front of him stood up and hit him. Somehow, several other people got involved, and it turned into quite a brawl, a hot-blooded, two-fisted dukeroo in defense of meditative silence and beauty.
MacDonald:
I assume you were in a period of experimenting with color. Was this your first color film?
Noren:
No, the first color shooting I did was the bathing series I mentioned.
The Wind Variations
was made while I was working on
Huge Pupils,
although I didn't release it until a couple of years later. All of that was simultaneous. Up until this time I couldn't afford to shoot in color. I remember a golden age of black and white when it was incredibly cheap; you could buy and develop a one-hundred-foot roll of black and white for five or six dollars. It was almost like [Alexandre] Astruc's ideal of the camera-stylo, of film being as cheap as pen and paper. That was some time ago, but it's now possible again, or almost, with video.
MacDonald:
Each of the film's six sections is, I believe, done in a different location, and each explores somewhat different sets of variables, within the general subject of light/shadow and the movement of the wind in the waving curtains. Is the order in which we see the six rolls the order in which they were shot? If not, what was the logic behind your choice of order?
Noren:
I made
The Wind Variations
in a few hours on two winter days, two different windows, in a rapture. I shot eight one-hundred-foot rolls, later rejected two of them, and arranged the remaining six in the order in which they were shot. As you can see from
The Lighted Field,
the subject still fascinates me.
MacDonald:
During the late sixties, a number of people were beginning to do films that provide meditative experiences. Were you in touch with other filmmakers working in similar areas?
Noren:
Not really. I was aware of Bruce Baillie's
Still Life,
which I liked a lot, though I haven't seen it for years. And Michael Snow and Joyce Wieland's
Dripping Water
. But you have to remember, the meditative stare was in the air, so to speak, at that time.
MacDonald:
This is also the earliest film in which your fascination