The
film ‘Berlin Horse’ by Malcolm Le Grice in 1971 is only eight minutes long and as far as
movies go its plot combines repetitive music of a basic melodic structure to the image of a
horse within a courtyard.
The vision appears rather blurred and all effects to the visual are done not to the image that remains constant, but to the film. The separation is that the image and the film are two identities that within the realist narrative frame the audience lose such notions.
The use of editing as a technique in both avant - garde and realist production is a vital process, however, the status in modernist cinema is too hide nothing. This idea is similar to the stage productions by Bertolt Brecht in the early part of this century. The audience should be aware that they are spectators and therefore all aspects of the production should be made accessible.
The jerky nature of the position of the overall projection illustrates a constant change in the level of the visual. Fear and anxiety is constant through the loop of the burning, jerky, running horse image which is ‘the same’ again and again but it is never the same as what we have already seen previous has past.
The ‘message’ of the film is not one of a political or social manner, the product is aesthetically challenging. What is presented to the audience is the method of presentation not strictly the content. One is to become aware of the organisation of structures, not hidden ideological or social connotations.
Images are detached from reality via concepts and ideas. The careful structure of the text provides various angles of expressionism and difference.