Black Ice

One of my favorites of the painted films. The sense of vertigo really makes you feel like you're endlessly falling into the frame.

Visually stunning, of course. I love the illusion of falling toward something, or something rushing towards you. Very effective, very cool.

Less enthusiastic about this one. The forward momentum is a disorienting touch, good at times, lurching and dizzying at others. This one I think I'd enjoy more to examine and see the process behind it than to examine and see the "film" itself.

On rewatch I actually kind of like the way the blacks and blues create a sense of movement.

(after 8 viewings) Much better after putting it on 0.5x the normal speed: it felt as if was both being pulled in by the background of the film and descended into the abbyss.

I'm not really sure what to say so er... it's kinda pretty. I'm not going to watch it again though.

Seconding that feeling of falling, as well as feeling of being drained -- how this is achieved is spectacular. This is the definition of something so beautiful, yet equally as ugly.

Breathtaking. That it looks really damn pretty (what with the shards of blue standing out magnificently against the black abyss behind it) is great and all but what really makes this film special is how it made me feel almost as if I was actually falling or being sucked in to the screen - it is something that you can only imagine experimental cinema doing and Brakhage does it amazingly.

lol at the premise of this. I, too, see lots of black ice when I fall down and hurt my nose!

Vertiginous and violent and beautiful.

depth

As a novelty item that surely took skill and a great eye, this is excellent. But as something that has power over me, I can't give it too much credit. It's a minute and 50 seconds, so naturally it's fleeting, but other than desperately wanting this to be my screensaver, I don't really have much to say about it - nor do I think there is much to say about it.

Didn't care for it. 5 points for being a little bit interesting.

Lovely. Wish it lasted longer.

Visually pretty, but I didn't get a lot out of it.

Did little for me.

More darkness (literally and figuratively) and foreboding in this one than is usual for Brakhage

Very pretty.

Waste of time.