The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, March 16-22
The Text of Light (1974)
Directed by Stan Brakhage
Brakhage’s fascination with the mechanistic process of celluloid pervades all his work, but The Text of Light is in some ways the most representative example. In it, Brakhage captures light reflecting through a crystal ashtray, allowing us to see not faces, geological formations, buildings and designs, but rather a simulacrum or light-sculpture of them. The ashtray, then, reminds us that the camera—and indeed our eyes—merely captures reflected light and creates an image from it. What hides beneath the beautiful, crystalline images on the screen, then, is a reminder of the organic, physical process—yet another Brakhage obsession—governing both the cinema and life. In this way, The Text of Light is a bridge between two of the director’s most notable tendencies, an exemplary work and ideal entry point. Forrest Cardamenis (March 20, 5:45pm at Anthology Film Archives’s Essential Cinema)