Hollis Frampton is, in my opinion, a terribly undervalued filmmaker. This is not to say that his films are unappreciated by film scholars, but rather that one is more likely to have read about his films than to have seen them. Zorn’s Lemma, in particular, is a film much written about but seldom seen. I won’t expend the effort to describe this film here because so many others have done so (notably P. Adams Sitney), but suffice it to say that the film, like so much of Frampton’s work, is about language. And while it is formally schematic in the extreme, it nonetheless offers a simple gesture toward the sublime, the quotidian, and the personal (and to New York City). So, on the one hand, his films are never quite as abusive as Sharits’, but nor are they so humorlessly mystical as Brakhage’s. Seek them out and watch them.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: 16mm Print
25 Apr 2005 11:52 PM | Submit Comment
