Director Bill Morrison's company is called Hypnotic Pictures, and never was there a more apt name. Most of this movie comes over you like a fever dream. Others may act to it differently, but to me it was the film equivalent of Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida. All of this film which by all rights could have been lost forever, never to be known, miraculously saved.
There's a scene towards the end of the film where we learn that even with the miracle, much of these old silent movies had been ravaged by water damage. Morrison then shows some of the film that has this damage, and one of the clips is a man dressed nicely who reaches out to another on the right side of the screen. We can never see this presumptive woman; it's just an arm that reaches out of the vibrating water damaged film, teasing the viewer with what is lost to time. It's a haunting symbol which makes me mourn all that was thrown into the Yukon River, never to be seen again or that which exploded in nitrate fire after nitrate fire. This is the type of film that will stay with me for a long time.
There's a scene towards the end of the film where we learn that even with the miracle, much of these old silent movies had been ravaged by water damage. Morrison then shows some of the film that has this damage, and one of the clips is a man dressed nicely who reaches out to another on the right side of the screen. We can never see this presumptive woman; it's just an arm that reaches out of the vibrating water damaged film, teasing the viewer with what is lost to time. It's a haunting symbol which makes me mourn all that was thrown into the Yukon River, never to be seen again or that which exploded in nitrate fire after nitrate fire. This is the type of film that will stay with me for a long time.