The Wonder ring

Duration: 6

Year Published: 1955

Creator: S. Brakhage

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: silent

Description: Responding to a request by Joseph Cornell to film the Third Ave. El before its destruction, Brakhage records a trip on the train combining a documentary sense of its engineering and architecture with a kinetic re-creation of the experience. The film's formal texture springs from an alternation of plastic cutting with collision montage, the repetition of shots and of slow panning camera movements, and rippling distortions from an imperfect window in the car.

Complete Record: Responding to a request by Joseph Cornell to film the Third Ave. El before its destruction, Brakhage records a trip on the train combining a documentary sense of its engineering and architecture with a kinetic re-creation of the experience. The film's formal texture springs from an alternation of plastic cutting with collision montage, the repetition of shots and of slow panning camera movements, and rippling distortions from an imperfect window in the car.