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"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."- Anton Chekhov, 1926, Art, Christopher Marlowe, film, Found in translation, Light is calling, On a cloudy day In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high, Rachmaninoff's 18th variation rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Rippling through mind Roller-coasting landscapes of being', short film
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
And we will sit upon the Rocks,
And I will make thee beds of Roses,
And if these pleasures may thee move,
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then come live with me, and be my love. – Christopher Marlowe
Only 8 minutes 12 seconds be this shortness. You’ll like it.
Light Is Calling
(8 min., 35mm, 720ft./216m, 2004)
A film by Bill Morrison
Music by Michael Gordon
World premiere: 23rd Sundance Film Festival, January 2004
International premiere: 33rd International Film Festival Rotterdam, January 2004
Imagery taken from “The Bells” (1926), directed by James Young
Starring Lola Todd and Edward Phillips
Original photography by L. William O’Connell (1926)
Optical re-photography by Cinema Arts (2003)
Recording courtesy of Nonesuch Records
Produced by Luke DuBois
Backing track: Mary Rowell, Ralph Farris, Joyce Hammann, Cenovia Cummins – violins.
Created using a decomposing 35mm print of the crime drama The Bells (1926), the experimental short Light Is Calling (2004) depicts a dreamy encounter between a soldier and a mysterious woman. With images that reveal themselves only to distort and disappear into the decaying amber-tinted nitrate, the New York-based filmmaker Bill Morrison – known for his use of found materials – invites viewers to meditate on the fleeting nature of all things physical and emotional, while a minimalistic violin score suffuses the century-old images with a wistful, haunting beauty.
