Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse: An Essay on Critical Cinema.

This essay was written in the spring of 2009 for an Avant-Garde film class (by Professor Chris Harris) taken at the University of Central Florida. The function of the essay was to anaylize a film from critical cinema. The following is an essay on Stan Brakhage's film Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse.



In Stan Brakhage’s film, Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse, frames of abstractly painted film flash across the screen, creating a colorful strobe, or flickering of light. However, not each frame is hand painted. The painted sections of the film are arranged in clusters that then follow empty exposed frames and scratched portions of the film that repeat back to the painted cluster. The result of which is an anti-illusionistic and self-reflexive episodic adventure that exposes the flatness of the screen, while also foregrounding the chemical and perceptual aspects of film.

Brakhage’s film operates without the use of narrative structures or fixed objects that one might assess with conventional cinema. Most of the frames are hand painted by Brakhage, and without the conventional cues of narrative storytelling, the viewer becomes aware of the fourth wall by which the images are being projected upon. The result being an anti-illusionistic film that operates entirely on its own terms.

One anti-illusionistic aspect of, Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse is the way in which it foregrounds the chemical aspect of projecting film. As light is being modulated through each painted image, it is clear to see how the paint has effected the emulsion of the film. Many of the frames have small cracks and blotchy speckles. This is not an in-camera effect, but is a direct result of Brakhage physically painting the film by hand; much like Jackson Pollock would paint abstractly on a linen canvas. By painting multiple abstractions on each frame of film, Brakhage has barrowed the same technique that Pollock used on another medium, and has applied it to the plastics. But in doing so he has alter the natural emulsion that the film has when normally exposed.

Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse operates in a simplified construction of painted images, then breaks the established decorum to show blank exposed and non exposed frames, none of which attempt to create an illusion of depth or a linear perspective. As light from the projector passes through each painted frame, the only objects the light has to fix itself onto are the painted brush strokes that actually rest on the celluloid. Hollis Frampton describes this as,” Preserving a faithful record of where the light was, and was not, it modulates our light beam, subtracts from it, makes a vacancy, [and] a hole.” In a sense the paint is taking away from the light. Though there is flatness throughout the entire film, it is never more apparent then in the exposed portions of the film where the paint is absent. Without an object to attach to, the light becomes disembodied and the viewer is all the more aware of the flat, two dimensional surface of the screen.

The strongest aspect of Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse that separates it from conventional films is in the way it foregrounds the perceptual aspect of the cinema. Peter Kubelka talked about how, “Cinema speaks,” and how he could articulate films frame by frame. Here, Brahkage, articulates Horror with his combination of editing and the various colors he uses on his pallet. The effect is a rapid flickering, or strobe, of light coming off the screen that stimulates the viewer’s perception. An average healthy person may take for granted, or not fully be aware, of their own eyesight. But immediately as Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse begins, the rapid success of colors and images creates a jarring effect on the rods and cones inside the spectators eyeball. This is certainly not an effect a person would gather from their day to day operations, and is only a foregrounding effect the film has on their perception.

Peter Kubelka also noted that, “Cinema is a quick projection of light impulses.” In Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse, Stan Brakhage uses paint to create the light impulses needed to articulate his version of horror through the foregrounding aspects that critical cinema offers.