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Films byBruce Conner 33 tutes the contrasting element of the film's basic tension is more rapid and is grounded in the film medium's material nature, in its twenty-fourpulses per second created by flickering light (a rhythmic pulse accentuated by blotches and marks on the film surface and by some single-frame shooting). The third construction that articulates the film's rhythm is established by the repetition of certain visual forms, especially the circle punched into the film that appears intermittently. And, finally, there is the rhythm established by the cutting (and sometimes reinforced by the appearance, at the cut, of an intensely dark or intensely light image). The interaction of these different constructions that articulate the film's complex of rhythmicactivity is simply astonishing. Most films, whether conventional or avant-garde, involve an interplay of two types of beats in a composite rhythm. The first type are those that derive from the actions that the shots represents. Beats of this type tend to have somewhat elastic relations with each other, which allow the duration between successive beats to expand and contract even while a feeling of a pulse is maintained. The second sort of beat is that which filmmakers create when they end one shot and begin another. A key aspect of the craft of film cutting is the integration ofthe two sorts ofbeats. This usually involves considerations regarding allotting each shot sufficient time to allow the internal development of the represented action without overextending the shot so that its length slackens the rhythm imposed by the successive exchangeof one shot for another. Cosmic Ray is unusual for constructing a composite rhythm in which beats of the second sort dominate utterly beats of the first sort. Only rarely does the internal rhythm of a shot assert itself: The most obvious case appears just after the middle of the film—an image of the woman, prone, slowly pulling off her underpants so that she is completely naked. The intrusionof this internal rhythm creates a hiatus in the film's overarching rhythm—a hiatus that emphasizes the shot's significance.P.AdamsSitney comments on the rhythm of Cosmic Ray that Conner's means for accomplishing this was to allow no shot to remain on the screen long enough to allow for any internal development; it is this that creates the conditions for the rhythm established by cutting to dominate the rhythm established by actions internal to the shot.14 This brevity has another effect that Sitney does not note. The result of the lack of internal development creates a pumping, mechanicalrhythm that lacks the elasticity of composite rhythms that accommodate the changing durations between the successive beats deriving from most represented actions. This pumping rhythm reflects the rhythms ofthe sexual act. 34 A Body of Vision Sitney does point out that the centre of the film is a collage that represents an orgasmic climax, and that this climax reveals that the structure of the entire film is patterned on a sexual encounter. By patterning the film's rhythms on the rhythms of the sexual act, Conner introduces another layer of meaning into the work. Its role and structure can be made clear by commenting on the same section of film as above—the section including the image of Mickey Mouse. (Choosing this passage for our example has the virtue of highlightingthe plurisemic implications of Conner's montage constructions .) On first viewing, the film seems a peculiar, rhythmically intense, semi-pornographic dance film. The whirling lights and surface textures superimposed over the dancer seem to serve strictly formal ends. When shots of parades, bombs, and rockets begin to appear and become more frequent , we are forced to revise our interpretation. Then, a shot of Mickey Mouse appears. As noted above, next we see a shot from a cartoon of a cannon pointed at his head. The cannon fires. At this point (as noted above also), Conner introduces an intense collage of documentary shots of huge antiaircraft guns launching their missiles into the sky and cannons firing. The intensity of the collage makes us recognize the orgasmic reference intended and brings the film's entire structure into focus. The phallic significanceof the guns becomes evident. Slightly later the cartoon reappears, with the cannons drooping like tumescent phalli. The song tries to arouse them to further action, as it wails "just one more time." The request is to no avail—the film sputters out over the flickering of leader and tails. The...

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