Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967) (HD)

[DohGeneSee]

46 minutes of cumulative frustration and a film that scares you more than a horror film.
When you free yourself from this experiment, all other films feel like masterpieces.
In that sense, even someone like me who doesn't understand art can say it was a worthwhile movie.

[Saltience]

I did not know what was going on at first, I simply felt as a fly on a wall and was curious to where things would go. Where things would go, it turns out, would be where I would look in the end. Somewhere during the negative portion of the film I noticed that one of the cabinets on the left appeared smaller than originally, and I began to realize that the camera was slowly zooming in. It did not take long for me to pinpoint that it was zooming in on a photo on the wall, though what that photo was was unclear due to the distance and darkness. From this point forward I was in a trance, not really actively watching but merely observing the zoom as we approached our destination; to figure out what that painting was. I noticing other things like time passing and the man who died but neither held my interest so much as the lighting changes that made it possible to eke out more of the picture. Every time the image got clearer I observed more intently, seeking to answer what the picture was. When I discovered that it was of waves, I felt happiness. The zoom had not stopped yet nor had the ringing (also a wave) stopped yet it did not matter. The moment I discerned the image is when the movie reached its peak and ended for me, as the film could no longer make me any happier. It speaks to me of some awe-inspiring simplicity, that such mundanity can still evoke joy. Perhaps indeed we could all be happy one day if we stopped to pursue more simplistic dreams.

During my watch I came to the conclusion that what truly makes Avant-Garde art work is its inversion of the dynamic between art and viewer. While most form of art are enjoyed by the viewer extracting something from the work, Avant-Garde art extracts something from the viewer, and as such is largely reliant on the viewer having something interesting to extract from. The more an Avant-Garde work can extract from a viewer, the more interesting it becomes. However this also means that Avant-Garde art faces new problems that it has to surmount. It must try to extract something worth extracting, but cannot truly pick what it gets. Most Avant-Garde art therefore is simple in nature as simplicity shortens the time to process the art and rushes to the point of extraction, the viewer's thoughts on the work much quicker than a more complex piece of art does.















Also the movie sucks, annoyed me with those light flashes that made it hard to look at and the ringing was pretty annoying too. 1/10

[Dawn]

I am speechless








The Godfather has been outclassed as the greatest movie ever made

[mrfooledyaa]

As someone with pretty intense mental health issues this was a challenge, and at the same time I couldn't pull myself away from it. That's a rare thing for me. I'm not sure if I finished it out of being stubborn, or because I was genuinely intrigued. I don't know what the point is, but the way it made me feel is a feeling I often already have. Alone with my thoughts in a room as the mental snow continues to fall. The brief introduction of humans or even music I enjoy does little to quell my loneliness, tho I'm surrounded by those I love. It's just another exercise in avoidance and anxiety. Interesting film.

[ValJedi]

Imagine a sequel to that - a 45 min zoom out XDD

[cuttchii]

Brilliant. Timeless. What a fantastic piece of media.

[PetProjects]

I'll admit, I genuinely laughed over how the woman just looks inconvenienced at finding a dead body in her loft. So the film at least gave me that.

[syater]

I first saw this in a film class in 1984 and felt it was like air bottled in 1967, or maybe unadulterated reality.

[ekleipsis]

why am i the only one who finds it scary from the uncanny darkness from the window to the sinewave getting higher

[jaredbissenden]

The fact that in spite of this film having a soundtrack that is 90% the slow onset of tinnitus, somehow the YouTube's content awareness decided "Strawberry Fields Forever" featured prominently in this...

[garethrichardson]

I remember watching this at Art School years ago.

[dankmemewannabe]

This film is putting me to sleep (positive attribute)

[elainealibrandi]

It's easy to think you've made incredible art when you're on acid.

[SeanJA]

Oh, that's why it is called Wavelength... Got it

[misteraskman]

This was... odd. I liked this movie. My eyes kept bouncing from corner to corner, trying to "solve" any mystery within. I found things but I'm sure they were cases of apophenia. Eventually I noticed the zooming-in, and kept the chair as my point of reference because it stood out due to its color.

The pitch kept getting highier but not louder, and the colors tended from red-yellow-ish to blue, both compressions of their respective wavelength (they really should warn about those flashes). Also, at the end, the picture of short waves... Maybe it was just meant to make you notice the passage of time as things get shorter and shorter? I don't know.

I felt peace, calm, tranquility as the movie kept going. My eyes kept bouncing but not looking for anything, just enjoying the view. The weirdest thing is that, at some point, I felt like the movie was watching me as well. Unrealted but for some reason I felt like 7 days passed in the movie (maybe that is again the apophenia, because 7 colors, 7 notes etc).

Oddly enugh, I think I will watch it again. I liked it.

[NoBrainer]

kids these days wouldn't be able to watch this without having tiktoks playing on the side

[BeeBN]

this "movie" didn't age too bad in the sense that it's a pretty cool look into the 60s, it's like you are in a room bored out your mind in 1967.

[residual_soap]

Still trying to figure out a drinking game to this movie...

[sonofmovienerdking]

How many people here saw this movie after James Rolfe from Cinemassacre made a video about it?

[colemanalbright]

I feel like Samuel Beckett would have loved this film