607 A Hollis Frampton Odyssey

[kinjitsu]

A Hollis Frampton Odyssey



An icon of the American avant-garde, Hollis Frampton made rigorous, audacious, brainy, and downright thrilling films, leaving behind a body of work that remains unparalleled. In the 1960s, having already been a poet and a photographer, Frampton became fascinated with the possibilities of 16 mm filmmaking. In such radically playful and visually and sonically arresting works as Surface Tension, Zorns Lemma, (nostalgia), Critical Mass, and the enormous, unfinished Magellan cycle (cut short by his death at age forty-eight), Frampton repurposes cinema itself, making it into something by turns literary, mathematical, sculptural, and simply beautiful—and always captivating. This collection of works by the essential artist—the first release of its kind—includes twenty-four films, dating from 1966 to 1979.

Disc Features

- New high-definition digital restorations of all twenty-four films, with uncompressed monaural audio on the sound films on the Blu-ray edition

EARLY FILMS
Manual of Arms (1966 • 17 minutes, 10 seconds • Black & White • Silent)
Process Red (1966 • 3 minutes, 37 seconds • Color • Silent)
Maxwell’s Demon (1968 • 3 minutes, 44 seconds • Color • Mono)
Surface Tension (1968 • 9 minutes, 30 seconds • Color • Mono)
Carrots & Peas (1969 • 5 minutes, 21 seconds • Color • Mono)
Lemon (1969 • 7 minutes, 17 seconds • Color • Silent)
Zorns Lemma (1970 • 59 minutes, 51 seconds • Color • Mono)

FILMS FROM HAPAX LEGOMENA
(nostalgia) (1971 • 36 minutes • Black & White • Monaural)
Poetic Justice (1972 • 31 minutes, 30 seconds • Black & White • Silent)
Critical Mass (1971 • 25 minutes, 30 seconds • Black & White • Monaural)

FILMS FROM MAGELLAN
The Birth of Magellan
The Birth of Magellan: Cadenza I (1977–1980 • 5 minutes, 41 seconds • Color • Mono)
Straits of Magellan
Pans 0–4 and 697–700 (1969–74 • 1-minute each • Color • Silent)
INGENIVM NOBIS IPSA PVELLA FECIT, Part I (1975 • 4 minutes, 48 seconds • Color • Silent)
Magellan: At the Gates of Death, Part I: The Red Gate 1, 0 (1976 • 5 minutes, 10 seconds • Color • Silent)
Winter Solstice (1974 • 32 minutes, 36 seconds • Color • Silent)
The Death of Magellan
Gloria! (1979 • 9 minutes, 36 seconds • Color • Mono)

• Audio commentary and remarks by filmmaker Hollis Frampton on selected works
• Excerpted interview with Frampton from 1978
• A Lecture, a performance piece by Frampton, recorded in 1968 with the voice of artist Michael Snow
• Gallery of works from Frampton’s xerographic series By Any Other Name
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an introduction by film critic Ed Halter; essays and capsules on the films by Frampton scholars Bruce Jenkins, Ken Eisenstein, and Michael Zryd; and a piece by film preservationist Bill Brand

[Gregory]

I hate to complain about this and will pick it up anyway, but only one Blu-ray (or 2 DVDs)? They're not only leaving out most of the seven-part Hapax Legomena series but are duplicating the first part, already released in the Treasures set?

[planetjake]

I've really been looking forward to this and am pretty bummed that the complete Hapax Legomena wont be included. I was lucky enough to see it a few years ago and now can't imagine just watching three parts of it. Though these films were available to rent separately, they really illuminate one another when seen as a complete whole in a way that just isn't possible with this (what amounts to) excerpt. I don't think I'll be buying it after all.

[Matt]

Yeah, it's like you want to reward them for releasing it at all but punish them a little for not going all in. Maybe if it's as successful as the first Brakhage set, they'll release a follow-up 7 years from now.

[domino harvey]

The set does seem to be hedging its bets a little too much-- "We could release a more complete set, but what if this one sells, what'd we follow it up with?" Weird. I wonder if there's a logic behind the selections?

[Tribe]

Notwithstanding the negatives from what I assume are folks who are very familiar with Frampton's work though...this is still something worthwhile for someone utterly unfamiliar with Hollis Frampton, yes?

[John Edmond]

The best I can say is read a description of a couple of his films, if they sound even remotely interesting to you then yes.

[knives]

I've only seen Lemon so this is an exciting prospect for me.

[John Edmond]

The set does seem to be hedging its bets a little too much-- "We could release a more complete set, but what if this one sells, what'd we follow it up with?" Weird. I wonder if there's a logic behind the selections?

See I alway this would be another case of Criterion demonstrating charitable risk. Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I find it hard to imagine Frampton being a big seller: Brakhage is way easier to introduce people to, and occupies the token experimental filmmaker position (no insult).

[Tribe]

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I find it hard to imagine Frampton being a big seller: Brakhage is way easier to introduce people to, and occupies the token experimental filmmaker position (no insult).

Are these even more abstract than Brakhage's films?

[John Edmond]

No, but that's why Brakhage is a lot easier - at some level you can just sit back and enjoy the pretty colours.

Description of Frampton's Zorns Lemma

Description of Frampton's Nostalgia

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

No one has brought up that this is technically and probably (but let's hope not) the closest we'll get to having Michael Snow in the Criterion Collection.

I hate to complain about this and will pick it up anyway, but only one Blu-ray (or 2 DVDs)? They're not only leaving out most of the seven-part Hapax Legomena series but are duplicating the first part, already released in the Treasures set?

(nostalgia) is one of his more well known works. Seems like a good way to bring potential customers to buying this set. Plus it will be in HD now, no?

[Gregory]

John: Well, some of the films on byBrakhage, especially on disc 1, are pretty damned challenging for viewers not already familiar with them. I think that was a pretty risky release back when it came out. However, I'd be far more surprised if they ever do another Hollis Frampton set than I was by the talk of (and the realization of) their second Brakhage release.

Tribe: If you want to get a taste for Frampton, I'd suggest the aforementioned Treasures 4 set. On it, (nostalgia) is a wonderful film about time (the passage of it, and the past, present, and future) as well as how an artist can look at his earlier work. It's one of the most interesting takes I've ever seen on how to use still images in a film.

Elegant Dandy Fop: That's really looking on the bright side. I could be wrong but I doubt (nostalgia) is well known enough on its own to bring many people into the set, and even if it does, presenting this instead of one of the other parts means that less of the entire work is available to viewers once they are interested in Frampton's work.

[John Edmond]

Trust me I'm not trying to limit Brakhage's scope*, just discuss how he can be sold.

*Key Brakhage volume 1 anecdote for me: a housemate entranced by Brakhage's more abstract side borrowed/stole my set to use as a visual background at a party - which apparently went great, for a while.

[planetjake]

Not to derail this thread, but I had a friend do the same with my set. He put it on the TV during a party. Everyone stopped socializing and began sitting down in front of the TV. Finally someone turned off the music and the party died.

[Gregory]

(nostalgia) is one of his more well known works. Seems like a good way to bring potential customers to buying this set.

I was just reading an interview with Frampton where he was talking about which of his films had been most widely seen, and he listed six films. Three of them are from Hapax Legomena, and they're exactly the three Criterion has seen fit to include here. This set is definitely "Frampton's Greatest Hits," though still probably a risk for Criterion and nothing to sneeze at, however disappointing compared to the rumored 3-disc behemoth and fervent hopes for Hapax Legomena intact.

[agnamaracs]

This set is definitely "Frampton's Greatest Hits,"

...or "Frampton Comes Alive."

In all seriousness, I don't know what the big fuss is. There are five DVDs and three Blu-Rays of Stan Brakhage. It's still nowhere near a complete set. In fact, it's purposely incomplete. Entire series are sometimes represented by just one film, and it's usually not even the first one.

The difference is that with Brakhage, it's pretty much accepted that the Criterion releases are just a sampling, an encouragement to go see the rest of Brakhage's work on film, which is usually agreed to be their best format. Given how touchy (living) experimental filmmakers seem to be about DVD distribution of their works, I'm not at all surprised Criterion is taking the same approach to a Frampton release as they did with the Brakhage releases.

(Oddly enough, the first rumors of a Frampton anthology came around the same time the second Brakhage volume was officially announced. Process that one.)

[Gregory]

I didn't mean to make any big fuss. I've tried to be fair in my comments. The news doesn't exactly surprise me either, because of byBrakhage's precedent and the huge amount of disc space that would be required to present Scenes from under Childhood or Arabics in their complete form.
I agree that the ideal thing would be seeing these longer series on film, but that's a rare opportunity requires lots of money, planning, and organizational know-how to make such a worthwhile event happen. I've been lucky enough to see a couple of programs featuring Brakhage films, but they were even more scattershot than Criterion's fine sets. Most of the Frampton works I've seen were on VHS tapes, so the set will be quite an experience, to say the least. Another Frampton set in, say, 7 years would be outstanding but hard to say what kind of releases Criterion will be doing years from now.

[zedz]

I'm very excited about this release. Although I'd personally love to see more films included, and specifically the entirety of Hapax Legomena, there's every chance that those works are incomplete at the artist's request, so as to protect revenues from film rental and to reinforce the primacy of the celluloid experience of the series. There's also a chance that Frampton feels that the filmic qualities of the omitted titles are such that they can't be adequately represented in a different format.

[knives]

I thought Frampton was dead?

[zedz]

I was speculating that he'd made his wishes known about non-filmic presentations at some point, like a lot of other experimental filmmakers, but hadn't realised he'd been dead quite so long! Still, the same stipulations could be made by his estate.

[agnamaracs]

I didn't mean to make any big fuss.

Well, it wasn't just you, it's half the commenters in this thread. The only real reason I quoted you specifically was so I could make that lame joke.

I thought Frampton was dead?

When I said "living experimental filmmakers," I meant just that. Frampton died right when the VHS revolution was happening. Home video presentation has greatly improved since then, yet there are still holdouts, such as Frampton collaborator Michael Snow.

[whaleallright]

This is an absolutely amazing venture by Criterion, who I know have been disappointed by the sales of the two Brakhage sets.

It's too bad they couldn't or wouldn't license all of this episode of Screening Room, which is fascinating but only available at institutional prices. I understand if Studio7Arts wanted to preserve its scarcity, but I also think that it would be a good advertisement for the rest of the Screening Room series--surely one of the greatest and most unaccountable things ever to appear on a PBS affiliate.

[Matt]

This is an absolutely amazing venture by Criterion, who I know have been disappointed by the sales of the two Brakhage sets.

I can't believe that. That the first set sold to anyone but libraries and a tiny set of experimental film fans must have amazed them. The fact that they went on to produce a second, bigger set tells me they must have been encouraged by sales of the first. If they're disappointed that sales were still only a fraction of those of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or some other top seller, then they weren't being at all realistic.

[whaleallright]

Everything I've heard is about how the second set, and the Blu-Ray combining both volumes, sold poorly. My guess is that unlike academic publishers, Criterion's production costs are such that they have to assume purchases beyond the several hundred guaranteed library orders. Like I said, it's to Criterion's credit that they have put together the Frampton set despite this.

If they really want to go out on a limb and publish some non-canonical experimental film, I think they could blow a few thousand minds with a Ben Rivers set.