Experimental film often uses abstract and surreal visual imagery to represent themes and issues, unlike mainstream cinema, which uses often characters and a narrative to make the viewing easy to watch. For me, as a spectator who is used to mainstream cinema, this can sometimes make watching and understanding experimental film difficult.
'Un Chien Andalou', directed by Luis Bunuel rejects all mainstream conventions of film, which I personally found difficult to watch, due to the surrealist and unconventional approach to the non linear narrative. This can be seen within the sequence where we see a long shot of the actor, Luis Bunuel dragging two pianos with dead mules with rope, towards the woman, who has backed away into the corner. It then cuts to a mid shot, in which the audience is able to see Luis Bunuel's struggle within his facial expression, representing his struggle against societies ideology and his own sexual desires. For me, this use of symbolism within the sequence of Luis Bunuel struggling to pull the rope was very confusing on my first viewing, due to the ambiguous imagery, like the mid shot of the two priests attached to the rope to represent societies ideology holding him back from his desires. This made my first viewing experience boring as it was difficult to understand, however, after repeated viewing, I felt that I was able to gain more experience with experimental films approach to representing themes and issues through surreal imagery, which made me appreciate the film more. The sequence then cuts to a close up of the womans face to highlight her fear, and then cuts back to a long shot as she runs into the near by door, with Luis Bunuel releasing the rope, as well as societies dominant rules, then running after her and trapping his arm the door as she shuts it. This is even more so highlighted with it changing to a mid shot to fully show his pain in his gestures and facial expression, which is used to represent the consequences of giving into his sexual desires. The sequence then cuts back and forth to show both the woman holding the door back and rejecting his desires, and to show Luis Bunuel's in pain through exaggerated gestures. The shot then cuts a close-up of Luis Bunuel's hand through the door, with ants crawling out from within the middle of his palm, representing his inner corruption being revealed through him giving into his desires, with him then clenching his fist to try to repel this. However, experimental films are often polysemic and rely on the spectator to derive their own personal response, which is something I found difficult on first viewing as I was used to mainstream cinema confining how they want the audience to feel, for example a close up shot to show the emotion of a less fortunate character for the audience to sympathise for. The sequence then cuts to a long shot of Luis Bunuel lying on a bed in a blank motionless state, showing the surreal non-linear narrative of the film. This made the film very confusing for me, as the film jumped from a confrontation to Luis Bunuel becoming static, which I caught me of guard, as I'm used to being told how to think and feel from watching mainstream cinema. However, after gaining more experience in experimental film and becoming more of an active viewer, I felt it much easier to understand the film is based more around themes than a conventional narrative, meaning I was able to find the film less difficult to watch than on my first viewing.
In comparison, 'Body Song', directed by Simon Pummell, uses similar techniques to mainstream cinema, through using non-diegetic soundtracks over scenes to affect how the viewer will feel when watching the film. This can be seen within the sequence which represents the violent nature of humans, through using found footage that differs between location and time periods to show that violence is universal and a part of the cycle of life. Specifically, within the scene where we see black and white footage of hundreds of World War One soldiers within the trenches, which can be see through the mise-en-scene of the guns and their old fashioned uniforms and the location of a deserted land. It is captured at a long shot, and as the soldiers begin to run up from the trenches, the camera slowly pans to the right, allowing the viewer to fully see the quantity of people risking their lives. Personally, I found this quite shocking and was hard for me to watch, as I have never seen footage from World War One which shows such raw representation of violence, compared to mainstream cinema, which is often overly dramatised for a more exiting viewing experience. The non diegetic soundtrack used within this sequence encourages the audience to view this sequence as a daunting representation of human nature, due to it being slow paced and ominous, which influenced my experience of the sequence to be very bleak and gloomy. On my first viewing, this familiar technique of placing non-diegetic music over scenes caused me to passively watch the film due to it telling the viewer how to feel through sound. However, as I learnt more about how the film is created through using found footage from over 100 years of film, it gave me more in sight into the philosophical meaning of the piece representing the cycle of life and human nature, and how the film creates this meaning as a whole, rather than just through particular scenes. The sequence then cuts to footage from around Asia to support the idea that violence is universal, which is even more emphasised through the juxtaposition between the colour change of the black and white footage to colour, which also shows a change in time periods as well. The shot shows a mid shot of a young Vietnamese boy crying as he is being held by the shoulder by a soldier pointing a knife towards him, with another soldier in the background holding a gun. The mise-en-scene of the weapons, such as the knife and the gun, the military uniform and the rural setting suggests that it is found footage from the Vietnamese war. For me, I found this to be very shocking due to the young age of the boy showing that the affects of violence are not being limited by age. The camera then pans round to a mid shot of the young boys family, showing a mother with three young children, with the mother then walking towards the boy and pulling him away from the soldiers. Personally, I found that the footage was hard to watch, as it places the viewer purely as a spectator to a disturbing and inhumane situation without any ability to change it, which is even more so heightened through the family starring directly into the camera. This self-reflexive aspect used within this scene is similar to the Screen Tests by Andy Warhol, which uses a static camera to capture a close-up shot of a subject, for example, Salvador Dali, looking directly into the lens for over 35 minutes. This rejects mainstream cinemas aim to draw the audience into a false reality, through breaking the illusion and reminding the viewer that they are just watching a film. From my own personal experience, I felt that the technique of placing suitable non-diegetic music over sequences made me sometimes view the film passively, however, through using self-reflexive footage and a different view point of well-known historical events, it made my experience of watching the film much more interesting and eye-opening to the philosophical approach to the cycle of life.
In conclusion, I feel that Experimental film is often viewed as being difficult, due to it rejecting mainstream approaches to film. For me, I felt that this made it difficult for me to decode the films meaning in the beginning, as I am used to mainstream cinema using conventional editing, sound and narrative techniques to make the film easy to watch. However, through gaining more experience in experimental film and thus becoming more of an active viewer, I feel I'm able to approach the films abstract and surreal imagery and decode the themes and issues behind them, meaning as a spectator, my experience has become less difficult because of this.
