I found out about the existence of Stan Brackage by accident. Being an ardent fan of the work of the band Sonic Youth, news reached me that one of the guitarists of this glorious, overseas musical collective - Lee Ranaldo, in addition to playing in, in fact, "Sonic" and a solo career, he also played in the experimental group Text of Light, which in turn composed music for films by American avant-garde artists, including Stan Brackage.
Desistfilm, or translating into the great and mighty Movie of Abstinence, is a seven-minute short film full of allegories, high notes and classical noise. Despite the fact that at first glance, the film is made by people inspired by the early works of David Lynch, the picture saw the light of day when Maestro Lynch went to first grade. Honestly, I can’t believe that the tape will turn 60 next year!
The story begins with a young man playing the lute, with other young men sitting next to him, one reading a book, the other smoking, the third playing a ball of thread. Their attention is focused on the girl sitting among them. The insolent camera attacks on the chest of which, together with the greedy looks of young people, suggest one single idea. Guys want it. The further development of the plot caused me a sincere smile. A guy with a book sharply picks up a bottle of alcohol, and a holiday begins, during which one of the young people still seduces the girl. The other guys stop having fun and watch them closely. Several allegorical comparisons can be made here.
If you think of a girl as a girl, you might think of a reproductive instinct that suggests some feminist ideas and makes you look at women in a very different way and their role in society. But you can look at the girl in this situation as a dream. Some kind of unattached, distant dream. Which young people want to catch by the tail. Everyone goes to this goal in different ways. Someone is trying to realize himself playing the lute, someone reading books, and someone just watching from the side, smoking a cigarette.
The further development of events can be described with the concise phrase “rebellion in a madhouse”. A guy depicting a machine gun shooting on his lute, a second building a house of books, a chase, and almost a fight, and the girl is left alone. When one of the guys catches his "dream", everyone begins to envy him, and try to take it away. In arguments with each other, people forget about their dreams, which remain alone. But when one of the guys breaks out of the general sodomy, he embraces the dream, while the others break the windows, look at them. And in their eyes anger mixed with envy. They want to take it away. This is definitely one of the saddest endings in cinema. Looking into the eyes of observers, you realize that they will not give rest to people who are happy.
It is the animal mask of all mankind. Let it be shown through a prism, with great refraction, and on the wrong scale.
A film of abstinence. From what? From a woman? Nope. Abstaining from dreams. What is needed and what is expensive. What's the point? When people are in conflict, they forget what a dream looks like. And what it's for. It's not a message. People won't change. That's what the ending tells us. What do we do? Live with it.
Of course, deep and hard work. In seven minutes of screen time, carrying more food for thought than individual, in the same direction directed feature films.
It's an amateur thing. But if you turn out to be this amateur, those seven minutes won't leave your head for long.