Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Denis Young) By Wilma Schoen (1974) by Michael Snow
Sunday, December 1, 1985, 7:00 pm
Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Denis Young) By Wilma Schoen By Michael Snow
Rameau’s Nephew… (1974) marked one of the high points of 1970s experimental film and is still Michael Snow’s (Wavelength, etc.) most complex and ambitious film. Rarely shown due to its extraordinary length (4 hours and 20 minutes), Rameau’s Nephew… is comprised of several short episodes which explore different relationships between looking and seeing, listening and hearing. “To me it’s the first ‘talking picture.’ Actors talk in pompous non-sequiturs, each statement dripping with insight, making less sense than the solemn speech of one lecturer whose nonsense syllables are recorded backwards earlier… A guitar mutters quietly when a chord is struck… an actor opens his mouth to bleat the notes of a trumpet; A studious-looking 12 year-old boy repeats: What more evidence can there be than the evidence of the senses?” (M.S.) Photographed by Babette Mangolte. Co-sponsored by the Canadian Consulate General.