Portrait of a Young Man in Three Movements (1931)

Portrait of a Young Man in Three Movements: Directed by Henwar Rodakiewicz. Without sound, in three movements. Title cards declare that what a person likes and his manner of liking them reveals character. There are long looks at forms and rhythms. The film begins and ends with the sea: the tide coming in, small breakers running up on a beach. In the first movement, rocks appear, light and dark play on water. From time to time, machines turn. The light makes dappled patterns. In the second movement, a leafy tree branch gives way to water then shots of the sky and clouds. The third movement returns to the shore, with long takes looking out far, past the beach to outcroppings under the horizon. Small breakers interrupt the patterns of light on water.

“This is a non-narrative film comprised mostly of long takes of natural events such as the flow of the tide on a seashore, or the leaves of a tree, or the clouds in the sky. The only non-natural events displayed are the motions of a machine at work (I could not identify which sort of machine it was), and it probably was chosen because of the repetitive pattern of its movement, which kind of echoes that of the tide flow shown just before them. The shifting patterns of light and shade induce a sort of trance in the viewer — an aesthetic experience that at its best can be ecstatic. The amazing thing about this film is that its concept is simple and its images are taken from common events, yet we never take the time to look at them in our everyday life.”