The man who made paintings move
Overshadowed by the death of visionary filmmakers Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, Jeremy Blake’s tragic suicide earlier this month seems to have slipped under the radar of much of the filmmaking and film-going community. With the death of these two legendary directors, who worked against history and the conventions laid out before them, it begs that we examine Blake’s work and why it has not gotten furthur recognition. It should prompt, more than ever, our awareness of how important filmmakers of Blake’s candor are, without their experiments and awareness, there will be no future Bergman’s or Godard’s. Bergman and Antonioni, before they became influential, and had the ability to create anything they pleased (see Bergman’s insane soap commercials), saw things in a different way, and it wasn’t easy for the world of cinema to accept them. They were outsiders who believed in the cinema they could create. Blake was similar, perhaps a bit before his time, perhaps saw a little more outside of the box than they did, but he was certainly just as much, if not more, of an outsider. (Though he would be more easily likened to a present day Maya Deren. Ditto on seeing outside of the box.)
Blake’s, limited, catalogue of short films stands as a testament to his goal of bridging the gap between painting and cinema. His films were tasteful, lush, intriguing and beautiful. His most accessible work couldn’t bring him into the forefront of viewer’s minds, by the very type of work he was doing was never going to be a name like Bergman, but he was seen, whether viewers knew it or not. Particularly his work on Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love and his music video for Beck’s “Round the Bend” created a platform from which viewers were exposed to his work, exposed to something new, irrational and completely logical. His work with Beck is so serene and conceptually synchronized that it should have gained him notoriety with music video directors like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry. The flow of pieces like “Round the Bend,” or “1906,” is striking, it’s contrary motion of static, yet constantly resonating and dissolving images, speaks to a course of human nature that few filmmakers have ever had the capability of capturing. His work with digital photography, multiple interfaces and painting stand to be highly influential to future filmmakers who can see cinema outside of corporate movie houses, for those who see cinema on the walls of galleries, on the sides of crumbling brownstones, on crudely hung curtains in living rooms and night skies, Jeremy Blake will be a visionary they look back upon. Someone who will inspire the world’s future Deren’s, Brakhage’s, Anger’s and Blake’s.
Jeremy Blake's 'Sodium Fox'
Beck's music video "Round the Bend," directed by Jeremy Blake
A very short clip from Blake's video 1906:
Trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Punch Drunk Love' featuring pieces of Blake's color patterns for the film:
