Lamentations: A Monument for the Dead World

Long Movie Marathon 2.0 Part IV

“this film is about you, not about its maker.”

its not very often you watch one of the most ambitious and philosophical films ever made… i just have. my view of cinema has been fully flipped on its head. its like ‘As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty’ in the way it makes me feel, but its so different in every other regard. this Brakhage-esque collage documentary is a sensational reflection of mankind and existence, Elder swan dives into the mind as if it were a bottomless abyss of insight and answers, exploring countless philosophies through multiple cinematic mediums. throughout the films runtime, overstimulation and intensity is constantly being contrasted by calming yet eerie subtitled imagery, contemplating faith versus logic, celebrating birth, death, and rebirth as the film guides us through our dead world. 

i would be lying if i said or acted like im anywhere near intelligent or educated enough to fully grasp this monstrous enigma, but what i managed to piece together was fascinating and marvelous, and im eager to learn more about what’s explored in the film in an attempt to possibly understand it further. overall this is one of the greatest, most unique movies ive ever seen, its a fucking wild experience.

Long Movie Marathon 2.0 Part IV

“this film is about you, not about its maker.”

its not very often you watch one of the most ambitious and philosophical films ever made… i just have. my view of cinema has been fully flipped on its head. its like ‘As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty’ in the way it makes me feel, but its so different in every other regard. this Brakhage-esque collage documentary is a sensational reflection of mankind and existence, Elder swan dives into the mind as if it were a bottomless abyss of insight and answers, exploring countless philosophies through multiple cinematic mediums. throughout the films runtime, overstimulation and intensity is constantly being contrasted by calming yet eerie subtitled imagery, contemplating faith versus logic, celebrating birth, death, and rebirth as the film guides us through our dead world. 

i would be lying if i said or acted like im anywhere near intelligent or educated enough to fully grasp this monstrous enigma, but what i managed to piece together was fascinating and marvelous, and im eager to learn more about what’s explored in the film in an attempt to possibly understand it further. overall this is one of the greatest, most unique movies ive ever seen, its a fucking wild experience.

It’s not every day that you see the most ambitious artwork you’ve ever seen.

I often hear a criticism of Godard that his films are messy and i would agree though I disagree that that makes them bad. The reason godards films are messy ,at least in my opinion, is that godards is striving for a goal so unattainable and lofty that even when he falls short of it the attempt alone is awe inspiring. None of Godard’s films ,even my favorites of his, achieve the goal that he set out for but in the “failure” to achieve it we are privy to glimpses of something beyond the boundaries of what has cinema has explored.

And there is no higher example of this concept than R. Bruce Elder’s “Lamentations: A Monument For the Dead World”. It is a film truly unmatched in its ambition. A film that reaches so far past the language of current cinema that it’s almost illegible. Does it always work? No? Yes? Maybe? In a weird way It almost feels unimportant to even look at it through a lens of success or failure. 

Built off the backs of Michael Snow, Jonas Mekas, and Stan breakage Elders Lamentations attempts to contextualize culture, camera, sex, history, and philosophy and their relation all at once. It is a film that attempts to capture both the collective historical and current human spirit.

Our current cinematic language is an island surrounded by a dark void of what we don’t know. Elder looks at this void steps into it with a bat in hand and swings wildly trying to hit any kind of New land. Elder jumps into the complete unknown and accepts the consequences. Success or failure happiness or suffering Elder crafts for us what he finds in the darkness.

It’s a film written in language that we have not yet developed. It is an exhaustingly active film only allowing the slightest amount of passive consumption completely losing you if your attention strays for even a second too long. Such intense engagement is both immensely draining and incredibly rewarding.

Like Kubrick's black monolith the secrets Lamentations holds are both completely unattainable yet instantly understandable .

Art at the edge. Art close to the heart.

It’s not every day that you see the most ambitious artwork you’ve ever seen.

I often hear a criticism of Godard that his films are messy and i would agree though I disagree that that makes them bad. The reason godards films are messy ,at least in my opinion, is that godards is striving for a goal so unattainable and lofty that even when he falls short of it the attempt alone is awe inspiring. None of Godard’s films ,even my favorites of his, achieve the goal that he set out for but in the “failure” to achieve it we are privy to glimpses of something beyond the boundaries of what has cinema has explored.

And there is no higher example of this concept than R. Bruce Elder’s “Lamentations: A Monument For the Dead World”. It is a film truly unmatched in its ambition. A film that reaches so far past the language of current cinema that it’s almost illegible. Does it always work? No? Yes? Maybe? In a weird way It almost feels unimportant to even look at it through a lens of success or failure. 

Built off the backs of Michael Snow, Jonas Mekas, and Stan breakage Elders Lamentations attempts to contextualize culture, camera, sex, history, and philosophy and their relation all at once. It is a film that attempts to capture both the collective historical and current human spirit.

Our current cinematic language is an island surrounded by a dark void of what we don’t know. Elder looks at this void steps into it with a bat in hand and swings wildly trying to hit any kind of New land. Elder jumps into the complete unknown and accepts the consequences. Success or failure happiness or suffering Elder crafts for us what he finds in the darkness.

It’s a film written in language that we have not yet developed. It is an exhaustingly active film only allowing the slightest amount of passive consumption completely losing you if your attention strays for even a second too long. Such intense engagement is both immensely draining and incredibly rewarding.

Like Kubrick's black monolith the secrets Lamentations holds are both completely unattainable yet instantly understandable .

Art at the edge. Art close to the heart.