"Pan 2" is as the title already says one installment of American filmmaker Hollis Frempton's "Pan" series. It is extremely short, which is a great thing as this was, even at 1 minute, a most boring watch. It felt like looking at a broken television set. now I am certainly biased in terms of Frampton as I have seen a lot of his worked and hated it all basically, but this one here has absolutely no creative value at all. Even Brakhage did better at this time. This one is from over 40 years ago, so not from the early stages of Frampton's career. But it is possible that he was at the lowpoint back then and it is ridiculous that there are more "Pan" films and that many of them are still somewhat known today. Highly not recommended.
2 Reviews
Pan 3 of 9
Tornado_Sam3 August 2019
The "Pan" films, presumably not titled as such originally, was a series of nine different one-minute short films created by experimental filmmaker Hollis Frampton for his enormous thirty-six hour film cycle "Magellan". As such, they were never released as individual works or given title cards because of being an intended part of this greater context, and in the end never actually used due to the project being cut short by the filmmaker's death in 1984. Reportedly, Frampton had originally hoped to complete seven-hundred and twenty "Pan" films in all, although for whatever reason only nos. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 697, 698, 699, and 700 are available now. One would think that because of the large gap in numbering there were more shot remaining unavailable; but due to a lack of evidence supporting this, the series is generally known as containing only nine.
"Pan 2" is what could be considered the third in the series and in it, the director reprises an image originally featured in "States" (1967). The visual is that of falling rock, coming in a quick downpour before the camera in such a way that it creates an interesting abstraction--and possibly (like it did to me) creates other mental images in the mind of the viewer. Certainly it is possible that the image itself was borrowed directly from the latter film, and while simple on its own it is clear that had the "Magellan" project been completed it would doubtless become more interesting among the array of various other films Frampton had prepared. On its own, it is interesting visually but little else for the average viewer.
"Pan 2" is what could be considered the third in the series and in it, the director reprises an image originally featured in "States" (1967). The visual is that of falling rock, coming in a quick downpour before the camera in such a way that it creates an interesting abstraction--and possibly (like it did to me) creates other mental images in the mind of the viewer. Certainly it is possible that the image itself was borrowed directly from the latter film, and while simple on its own it is clear that had the "Magellan" project been completed it would doubtless become more interesting among the array of various other films Frampton had prepared. On its own, it is interesting visually but little else for the average viewer.
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