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An Example of Associational Form - A Movie
An Example of Associational Form - A Movie
Segment 1
This segment does far more than give us the title and the filmmaker’s
name, and for that reason, we have numbered it as the first segment
rather than separating it off as a credits sequence. At first, we see blank
black leader, over which the brisk opening of The Pines of Rome begins.
This stresses the importance of the music in the film, since we hear it
before seeing any images. Then the words “Bruce Conner” appear,
remaining on the screen for many seconds. Because we do not need that
much time to read the name, we may begin to sense that the film will
playfully thwart our expectations.
After the name, we see more black leader, then white leader, then a
quick flicker effect rapidly alternating two frames of the word “A” with a
blank white leader, and finally the word “Movie.” The word “By”
appears, with more white frames, then “Bruce Conner,” as before. Now
a black leader appears, with markings that usually appear on the first
portion of the film strip but that are seldom projected on the screen for
the audience to see: splice cues, dots, and other signs. Then, suddenly,
“End of Part Four” flashes on the screen.
We might think that Conner is simply playing with the graphic qualities
of titles and leader marks, as Leger and Murphy did in segment 5 of
Ballet mécanique with its dance of intertitles and zeros. But here
Conner uses graphics with conventional meanings: leaders and credits
usually signal the beginning, while “End of Part Four” implies we have
already seen a considerable part of the film. Once again A Movie signals
us that it will not be an ordinary film—not one in which the parts follow
in logical order. We must expect odd juxtapositions. Moreover, the
flicker and leader markings stress the physical qualities of the film
medium itself. The title A Movie reinforces this reference to the
medium, cueing us to watch this assemblage of shots as bits of film.
Segment 2
Although the music runs continuously over the transition, in segment 2
we begin to see a very different kind of image. A series of 12 shots shows
us mounted Indians sitting on a hill, then chasing a fleeing wagon train,
with Hopalong Cassidy recognizable as one of the cowboys. More old
film footage follows, this time a clip suggesting a story situation that
will continue from shot to shot: a fight between Indians and settlers.
But Conner shows us this scene only to refer briefly to the conventional
kind of movie he is not making (10.76, 10.77). The association here
seems clear enough; we move from horses to more horses, all in rapid
motion. The next change, moving toward imagery of cavalry, confirms
this association among horse-drawn vehicles.
Figure 10.76: In A Movie, from a shot of galloping horses pulling a wagon, Connor cuts to…
Figure 10.76: …similar horses, but now pulling a fire engine on a city street.
This sense of frantic activity continues into the later part of segment 2,
which moves from the tank to a series of shots of race cars speeding
around tracks. Since these shots initially confirm our expectations
about moving animals and vehicles, they are less challenging to us—at
first. Then one race car crashes, followed by two other similar crashes;
and the segment ends with the long, spectacular fall of an old-fashioned
car off a cliff. The sense of movement has become less funny an
exhilarating, more uncontrolled and frightening. The tone of
amusement has shifted toward one based on shock and horror in the
face of so much devastation. Again, this effect is created by tight
coordination of cutting, music, and movement in the frame. For
instance, the frenzied buildup in the musical score accompanies the
string a race car crashes. Blaring, dissonant phrases begin to punctuate
the music at regular intervals, and Conner’s editing times each one to
coincide with a car crash. The manic energy of the tumultuous race has
turned reckless and self-destructive.
During the crashes, the music has built up to a frenzied climax, and it
cuts off abruptly as a “The End” title flashes on the screen. This parody
of the ending of a conventional film suggests that the crashes have
resulted from all that rushing motion earlier in the segment. At this
point, we might begin to sense that there has been an underlying tone
of aggression and danger from the start: the attacking Indians, the
cavalry, the charging elephant, the tank, and so on. This element will
intensified in segments 3 and 4.
Segment 3
More black leader continues the transition set up by the “The End” title,
and there is a pause before the music of segment 3 begins. (As at the
film’s opening, it plays at first over the darkness.) But this time the
music is slow, bleak, and slightly ominous. The “Movie” title and more
black leader move us into a series of shots very different from those of
segment 2. Two Polynesian women carry large, totemlike objects on
their heads. Leader and a title interrupt once more, introducing a short
series of shots of a large dirigible in flight (10.80) and of an acrobat
couple performing on a small platform and tightrope high above a
street (10.81). If the women and the dirigible are associated through
balancing, the dirigible is linked to the acrobats not only by that but
also by an emphasis on heights and danger. This portion of the segment
ends with a shot of a small plane plunging downward through fleecy
clouds, as if, having lost its balance, it is falling. Slow, sinister music has
cued us how to react to these floating and falling objects; without the
music, we might take them to be lyrical, but in context, they suggest a
vague threat. This passage ends with more titles: ‘‘A,’’ “Movie,” “By,”
and “Bruce Conner,” followed by black leader.
Figure 10.80: A Movie: image of heights…
The same principle underlies the next shots, as the officer orders a
torpedo fired, and we see it seeming to race toward the woman, creating
a sexual pun. This, too, is funny, as is the atomic-bomb orgasm that
seems to result. But, as in the first segment, there is an overtone of
threat and aggression—now specifically sexual aggression—in these
images. They move quickly from humor to disaster as additional
mushroom cloud shots undercut the joke. Moreover, the music that
plays through the submarine–woman series is slow, quiet, and ethereal
—not appropriate to the erotic joke, but more suited to the images of
the bomb blasts.
Abruptly, people are seen riding odd bicycles (10.82). The move from
the boat to the bikes takes us briefly away from the accident series to a
string of shots showing people deliberately doing things that look
grotesque. Additional shots show motorcyclists riding through mud and
water, and a plane trying to land on a lake and flipping over.
Figure 10.82: An inexplicably grotesque image from A Movie.
Figure 10.83: In this puzzling shot from A Movie, Roosevelt speak vigorously, seemingly
angry, with bared teeth.
Figure 10.84: A collapsing bridge in A Movie.
Segment 4
Once more A Movie marks off its segments clearly, with black leader
again accompanying the opening of the third portion of The Pines of
Rome. An eerie gong and low, slow chords create a distinctly ominous
mood. Segments 2 and 3 both built up toward accidents and disasters.
Now segment 4 begins with a series of images of military planes being
shot out of the sky and firing on the ground, followed by a series of
explosions against a dark sky.
Yet the next passage juxtaposes shots of disasters with some shots that
are inexplicable in this context. All the images of planes and explosions
seem associated with war and disaster. Now we see two planes flying
past an Egyptian pyramid (10.85). As with so many of the earlier
juxtapositions, we must abruptly switch our assumptions about how
these shots relate to one another, since now we see nonmilitary planes.
But immediately, two shots of an erupting volcano appear. Clearly, the
connection between them and the previous shot is mainly created by
the pictorial similarity of mountains and pyramids. Are we back to
disasters again? Seemingly not, for we next see an elaborate church
ceremony, and all our expectations are thwarted. But the disaster motif
returns as strongly as ever: the burning dirigible Hindenburg, tanks,
more race car crashes, and tumbling bodies.
Figure 10.85: A Movie.
All these images create tension, but the next shots we see are of people
parachuting from a plane. Interestingly, this action is not threatening,
and the people here are not hurt. Yet in the context of the earlier
accidents, and because of the ominous music, we have begun to expect
some sort of disaster as the likeliest subject of each shot. Now even
these innocent actions seem threatening and again may be seen as
linked to military and political aggression.
After the climactic series of disaster shots, the tone shifts one more
time. A relatively lengthy series of underwater shots follows a scuba
diver. He explores a sunken wreck encrusted with barnacles (10.89). It
recalls the disasters just witnessed, especially the sinking ship (10.88).
The music builds to a triumphant climax as the diver swims into the
ship’s interior. The film ends on a long-held music chord over more
black leader and a final shot looking up toward the surface of the sea.
Ironically, there is no “The End” title at this point.
What of the ending? The scuba diver epilogue also offers a wide range
of implicit meanings. It returns to the beginning in a formal sense:
along with the Hopalong Cassidy segment, it is the longest continuous
action we get. It might offer a kind of hope, perhaps an escape from the
world’s horrors. Or the images may suggest humankind’s final death.
After despoiling the planet, the human can only return to the primeval
sea.