Page 192
ever filmed has objected to the way in which it was done, and certainly no one has ever demanded changes.
The reworking of
False Pretenses
and
The Phantom Enthusiast
is a matter of reorchestration: expanding the films in some ways and condensing them in others. There's also a large amount of material from that time that I want to include if I can.
Unfortunately, the time available to me to do this work is very limited. Don't forget that I work for a living [Noren works at Sherman Grinberg Film Libraries, Inc. in New York City], with punishing expenditures of energy. Also, I'm working on a new film, shooting and editing almost simultaneously, and I'm working on several other projects as well, so it would be hard to say when the reworking of those films will be completed.
MacDonald: Charmed Particles
puts the viewerI assume by designin an unusual situation: the film is full of visual pleasure. I'm "oooohing" and "wowing" all the time as I watch it. And yet, because of the way you use single framing, there's battering of the eye that reminds me of Tony Conrad's
The Flicker
. It causes the viewer to continually fight exhaustion.
Noren:
By "viewer," you mean yourself in this case because not everyone has had that problem. The film presents an energy field of a particular intensity. It's possible to enter into it and be energized by it up to that intensity, if you want to. The pulsation of light and shadow, single framing plus sixteen to eighteen fps projection, exerts a hypnosis of a certain kind which tempts you to surrender conscious control of the proceedings. Loss of control is scary to that part of the mind responsible for it, so that part resists and fights to maintain control, and since the film is long, grows fatigued. But, of course, nothing bad will happen to you, in this case at least, if you lose control. The worst thing that can happen is that for an hour or so you'll see the way I see, rather than how you normally see. Also, since the energy level of that film is high, attempts to analyze it while it is in progress are frustrated, and that can produce fatigue. Various people have told me that the film is "too short," "too long," and exactly the "right" length. Who am I to say?
I never consciously think of viewers' reactions. It's something you can never predict or anticipate, and I'm certainly not trying to manipulate reactions. What I'm interested in is strong and clear transmission of the energies at hand.
It's interesting that many people see color in
Charmed Particles,
since it's the blackest of blacks and whitest of whites. I remember speaking to someone after a screening who was convinced that the entire film was in color with a few black and white insertions, and wanted to know why I had included the black-and-white.