One Way Boogie Woogie / 27 Years Later

United States

2005

121 Min

Color

English

Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

|

In 1977 Benning shot One Way Boogie Woogie, a one-hour film composed of 60 minute-long shots of industrial urban landscapes in his native Milwaukee. For 27 Years Later, he returned to the same locales with the same people in them to record the changes. The individuals, of course, have changed – and a few had died. But except for the occasional new structure and several having been razed, the images are pretty much the same. The most revealing difference between the two films is the difference between the two film stocks: The earlier film has rich hues, where as the new one has coolly clear realistic coloring, lending it a strongly contemporary feel. Once Benning has set up his camera he never moves it, but his images never seem static. He invites us to appreciate the geometric forms of industrial build ings and other structures. His sense of composition is so acute, it’s as if one could feel the tension between forms of the structures framed or bisected by the strong verticals of telephone poles and smokestacks and the horizontal plinths of sidewalks and streets. The presence of human beings also allows him some droll humor. It has been observed that Benning recalls Mondrian’s geometric paintings in form, and the urban landscapes of Edward Hopper in tone and content. Sure enough, in the original film, two men amusingly walk by carrying a Mondrian-like painting; in the sequel, a single man carries a Bill Traylor painting of a steer. —Kevin Thomas

Director

James Benning

James Benning’s early films fused the “structuralist” investigations into sound-image relationships of filmmakers like Michael Snow and Hollis Frampton with an interest in narrative and a deep sensitivity to color, light, and landscape. He first grabbed the attention of the avant-garde film world with 8 1/2 × 11 and 11 × 14. Filmed in vivid color in the rural and urban landscapes of his native Midwest, these two films would provide the kernel for his further investigations into film form.

His films’ rigorous structures — often based on numerical systems — and exquisitely composed shots reflect his training as a mathematician, and their frequently autobiographical subject matter draws upon his working-class roots (a rare subject for avant-garde film) and his longtime commitment to political activism.

While his earliest films are mostly concerned with form and narrative, his work in the ‘80s began to introduce both personal subject matter and documentary elements, at the… read more

James Benning’s early films fused the “structuralist” investigations into sound-image relationships of filmmakers like Michael Snow and Hollis Frampton with an interest in narrative and a deep sensitivity to color, light, and landscape. He first grabbed the attention of the avant-garde film world with 8 1/2 × 11 and 11 × 14. Filmed in vivid color in the rural and urban landscapes of his native Midwest, these two films would provide the kernel for his further investigations into film form.

His films’ rigorous structures — often based on numerical systems — and exquisitely composed shots reflect his training as a mathematician, and their frequently autobiographical subject matter draws upon his working-class roots (a rare subject for avant-garde film) and his longtime commitment to political activism.

While his earliest films are mostly concerned with form and narrative, his work in the ‘80s began to introduce both personal subject matter and documentary elements, at the same time becoming increasingly concerned with the themes of history, memory, and death. American Dreams, Landscape Suicide, and Used Innocence all provide glimpses into the minds of violent criminals through their own words, and are made all the more chilling by Benning’s decision to place their crimes in their historical and political and contexts rather than pass judgment on them.

After moving to California in the 1990s, Benning began, with the highly acclaimed Deseret, a series of experimental documentaries investigating the effects of history and politics on the American West. Composed almost entirely of landscapes, these films recall his early experiments with cinematic time and offscreen space, and are considered by many to be among his best.

His central innovation — the use of narrative to explore cinema’s formal possibilities — has proven to be enormously influential on a number of experimental and independent filmmakers. Echoes of his style and compositional sense have popped up in television commercials since the ’70s, and can be found in the work of such directors as Jim Jarmusch, Chantal Akerman, and Rob Tregenza. —allmovie guide

read less