Film 202 Blog#3 Prt 2 Nathaniel Dorsky's “Three Songs”: “Song and Solitude”,“Winter, & Sarabande.”

Blog entry three, “Three Songs”: Recent Films by Nathaniel Dorsky

On Tuesday, November 25, 2008 the Union Theater at UW-Milwaukee displayed Nathaniel Dorsky’s new films “Song and Solitude” and “Winter, & Sarabande.” The following is a film comment by Paul Arthur found at http://canyoncinema.com/D/Dorsky.html “Song and Solitude" was conceived and photographed with the loving collaboration of Susan Vigil during the last year of her life. Its balance is more toward an expression of inner landscape, or what it feels like to be, rather than an exploration of the external visual world as such. Old School doesn't describe it. Dorsky has achieved such a subtle mastery over the most basic means of cinematic expression-composition, duration, juxtaposition-that he can squeeze a wealth of emotional vibrations out of the silent, seemingly banal interplay of foreground and background objects. A formalist with a brimming, elegiac soul, Dorsky will gently rock your attitude toward cinematic landscape. His world is a sublime mystery measured by patience and unmatched visual insight.” This film comment by Paul Arthur described Nathaniel Dorsky’s film, “Song and Solitude” with interesting facts and information that otherwise would have not been made known to me. The information about Dorsky’s mastery of visual landscapes rings true. When it comes to film, Dorsky is for the most part a purist in that he only focuses on the visual aspect of film and does not use sound. When I was in the theater watching these new films of Dorsky’s although it was visually stimulating at other moments the silence was deafening.

I have seen Nathaniel Dorsky’s work before and I am a fan of his brilliant films. I must admit that I would have liked to hear some of the sounds of San Francisco. I have never been there and I think it would have been enlightening to hear the sounds of the local environment where he was filming. When the viewer is seeing these films for the first time the silence in the film changes the experience of watching. Sometimes the mind will try and fill in the silence with sounds that seem familiar to what the viewer is seeing but ultimately the silence takes grasp of the viewers and it is that which focuses the attention of the viewer more so. The absents of sound in these films makes the viewing process unique in that it makes the viewer more reliant on what they are seeing do to the feeling of sudden loss of audio. Every frame in each of these films is a visual gem in a cinematic landscape.

Sound and film done together is an art in itself to master. However film done with no sound which is focused on visuals alone is a completely different and more complex art form to master. Nathaniel Dorsky is a true master when it comes to silent film making. It is his ability to craft and film visual gems that makes his movies a treat in themselves to watch.