Nostalgia: Hapax Legomena I
Hollis Frampton
(Canada, 1971, 16 mm, 36:00)
Twelve photographs are presented as ‘documents’ of a period from the life of the filmmaker. A number are of friends in the New York Art world, others are images that were of aesthetic interest. Each photograph is presented to the camera and a voice, speaking in the first person, describes the content of the image, the personal circumstances that surround it and the memories it evokes. The tone is dry and ironic After a minute or so when the commentary has ceased, each photograph gradually curls up and burns, transformed into block ash. Frampton combines the images and the commentary in a way which complicates the structure of the film. The spectator is caught up in the process of memory end prediction, which is the actual subject of the film.