‘Non-Narrative Documentary’

In the extract on ‘Non-Narrative Documentary’ film in D. Bordwell and K.Thompson, 2006,  Film Art: An Introduction, pp. 342-370 the main ideas where on the different aspects within Documentaries and Experimental Film. When we watched the categorical form of Gap Toothed Women, it made me think of the how models back in the day used to get there teeth separated so that they fitted in with the trend. Its quite bizarre that people who would have had great looking teeth did this to themselves in order to look a certain way, or be accepted into different jobs such as modelling. I guess models do go above and beyond to get noticed. But then we get the people who are born with it. Somehow peoples genes say that they are going to have separated teeth. Its weird to comprehend. Moreover, the reading also talked about Ballet Mechanique which is an experimental film that provides visuals on masks with unusual camera angles, objects, shapes and textures. In the Ballet Mechanique the sound is a major factor used to illustrate a sense of scariness, the orchestra increases in pitch and volume and continually crescendo’s through the film. I found that it was trying to come up with some sort of narrative, like in vertigo in the opening sequence where there is close ups of a woman in black and white which evokes a sense of being watched. I defiantly felt the mirrors and objects that were constantly inverted, upside down, patterned (the list goes on), tried to say that this woman is being watched by all the technology/mechanical objects in society. Or even that what it seems to be isn’t always what it is (both with human emotions and the looks of the world) eg. The moon, is it a circle or a triangle. The overwhelming amount of abstract motif’s are clearly shown through experimental film, and clearly highlights associational form as its main contributor.

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