Barn Rushes

“Barn Rushes is one of those seldom films which surprises one over and over. I remember the surprise I had when I used it first in a class; Barn Rushes is so ecstatic and visionary that I thought a didactic setting might smother it. However, the film instead emerged not only unscathed, but (phoenix-like) improved! For aside from the compositional/retinal joy of the film, it is also a tour-de-force in sequential organization of thematic material, the closest possible approach to a textbook of atmosphere, camera vision, and lighting, as they relate personal concept to purely visual relationships. “… elegant yet rustic in its simplicity of execution; tugged gently toward different sides of the set by hints of color and motion interactions, positive and negative spaces, etc., and the unyielding delivery on one of the great apotheoses of poetic cinema at fade-out time.”

Tony Conrad Collection: Carnegie Institute; Moderna Mus’et, Stockholm