Comingled Containers (1997) User Reviews

Bubbles of light

[ackstasis · 7/10 · 28 April 2009]

'Commingled Containers (1997)' is a purely visceral experience. His first photographic work in years, Stan Brakhage produced the film on the eve of bladder cancer surgery, and it served as an eleventh-hour tribute – a "last testament," he wrote – to the magnificent natural world of which he was constantly in awe. Brakhage described the film as "an envisionment of the fleeting complexity of worldly phenomenon." But he didn't view the world as we ordinary people did. The natural environment captured by Brakhage's camera is almost entirely alien – solid materials appear to flex and flow like liquids, light seems to materialise into swirling bubbles. The images were apparently captured by filming the refracted light in water and plastic/glass containers, the purpose being to persuade the viewer to perceive light in a different manner to that which he is accustomed (this was a major theme in much of Brakhage's work; for example, the feature-length 'The Text of Light (1974)' was shot entirely through a glass ashtray). The end result is a breathtaking montage of exotic visuals, which at times seem to resemble deep-sea jellyfish pulsating sluggishly through the black ocean. By capturing and focusing on those brief, fleeting moments, Brakhage shows us something that's before our own eyes, but that we've never seen before.

of art and film

[docasay · 9/10 · 17 January 2004]

A work of such magnitude and power that one struggles to believe it is less than 10 minutes long. This is my favorite Brakhage for perhaps the most shallow reasons in that I just find it strikingly beautiful to watch. It is so refreshing to find someone who struggled their entire life, purely for the struggle and the goal of reaching perfection in their art. It is good to know that men like Brakhage can live today. A true artist, and a great loss.

Foggy and forgettable

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 11 August 2015]

This is another movie by director Stan Brakhage that he made fairly late in his career, namely in 1997, less than 20 years ago when he was in his mid 60s and had remarried already. The style is similar to his previous works although it's not as colorful really. Maybe the gray-green color is somehow used to describe the looks of the containers. I cannot say I enjoyed watching this more than his other works really. He does not really do a lot for me and even in such a humble attempt like this one it is still an example of style over substance for me. There are not that many films of Brakhage that I somewhat enjoyed and this one is certainly not among them. 3 forgettable minutes, not recommended.

Seeing the glare

[Polaris_DiB · 8/10 · 27 March 2008]

In "Comingled Containers", the plasicity of the film medium itself gives way to echoes of plasicity in the environment as the stock captures the refracted light of "containers" (water, cases, glass, etc.) into a swirling, almost bubbly mixture of light in the foreground. Once again Brakhage is calling attention to another level of light not often privileged by the spectator, that of refraction off pools, heat-waves, windows, etc., which form nearly solid specters of motion that we see every day but often don't give a second thought about after we try to see past the "glare".

--PolarisDiB