Wavelength (1967) by Michael Snow

Described as one of the greatest art films of all time, Wavelength, released to an underground audience in 1967 by prolific Canadian media artist Michael Snow, is not only a flawless piece of post-Godard structuralist cinema but also one of the most aesthetically fascinating artworks of all time. Made up of one static shot and some very slow zooms, Wavelength retains interest through brilliant formal flair, exploiting every defect of 16mm film stock to great avant-garde effect. The film is fairly plotless, but still a piece of narrative cinema, with scraps of information here and there, and a highly ambiguous death. Snow shot this over one week in a loft in Manhattan, borrowing a 16mm camera from fellow post-Godardian American avant-garde artist Ken Jacobs, and used a variety of film stocks, including Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Kodak color negative, Agfachrome color reversal, DuPont black-and-white reversal, and Ansco stocks. Snow also experimented with expired film, as well as film intended for outdoor lighting. As a person highly invested in the preservation of classic obscure and arthouse film, I was upset at the state of the only other copy of Wavelength on YouTube, and decided to upload my own. This is a film rip, unfortunately not digitised straight from the negatives, but the second-generation reel gives off an authentic film feel that can't really be found elsewhere.