Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 19:06:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Judith Frederika Rodenbeck <jfr10-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Ernie Gehr/Serene Velocity
To: film-theory-AT-world.std.com


Serene Velocity is a 23 minute film, made in 1970. It is composed entirely
of one static general image, which shifts specifically over the course of
the film in an increasingly rapid sequence of jump cuts in and out. The
film is 16mm (silent), the image therefore reasonably square. It's an
institutional corridor with rectangular fluorescent panels overhead and a
large steel door at the end above which hangs a red exit sign. The walls
are of cinderblock painted either whitish or a pale green and punctuated
regularly by black columns, and occasionally by a drinking fountain or an
electrical outlet. Overall the image has a greenish tinge (could be the
lighting) and the red glow of the exit sign seems to bleed beyond the
borders of the cutout letters. The whole is framed so that the door is in
the center of the frame and the edges where the walls, floor and ceiling
meet form vectors pointing towards the door. The film begins with a
pulsating rhythm as the image jumps towards and away from the door; we're
at one end of the hall and then we're right in front of the door, looking
at it's split center--but just for a nanosecond. It's a rhythm which is at
first irritating, then like a heartbeat, then like sex, and one moves from
feeling the image to be mechanically anomolous to feeling it as an organic
riff. This goes on and on. I found myself trying to keep track of the wall
elements to see if the camera was moving in or out. The pulse gets faster
and faster until suddenly--like that moment when the mushrooms kick
in--the door disappears and you're watching crystal formations snap into
alignment in flashes. The vertical elements, the light cast on the floor,
the panels in the ceiling start to revolve around this pulsing door, and
the exit sign multiplies and disappears. Optically it was similar to
watching spokes appear to stand still or turn backwards. Psychically, the
sexual metaphor applies. It was remarkable, really, because on the one
hand you're aware that you're looking at this incredibly banal image of an
institutional hallway, on the other you're being consumed by this spinning
god's eye which takes over your body--fabulous. 

I was thinking about: the carnality of vision, the optical unconscious,
tantra, crystallography, boredom, psychedelics, Donald Judd, phase-shifts
and Steve Reich, water, gems, caves, orgasm, hospitals, freedom, Duchamp,
what it means to exit, Maxwell Smart... 

Conditions: at Anthology Film Archives. About 8 people in the audience. 
The projectionist turned on the projector and the image was way in the
upper right corner of the screen, blurred. The loop on the projector was
too tight and the image was out of focus for the first few minutes.
Finally a very large German man got up and said, "This is NOT Ernie Gehr's
film! You have MUTILATED a MASTERPIECE!" He was then encouraged to tell
the projectionist, who had already waited minutes to adjust the film and
wouldn't rewind and start again. So the man stuck his hand in the frame,
whereupon the projectionist yelled, "Get your f-ing hand out of the f-ing
frame you f-ing a-hole!" (Leading one to ponder the poverty of "carnal" 
language.) He came into the theater with the security guard and asked Herr
X to leave, so we all said, "Wrong, Mr. Projectionist." It was kind of a
near riot (right, all 8 people at an obscure 70's flicker film, YEEHAW).
So finally he left, and we leaned back, sweaty, giggling, and full of
adrenaline, to be consumed by the crystalline maw spinning in front of us. 

Now THAT was SUTURE!

-fido