Nocturne Philip S. Solomon, 1989

NOCTURNE strongly evokes one of Brakhages most exquisite films, FIRE OF WATERS (1965). Its setting is a suburban neighborhood populated by kids at play and indistinct but ominous parental figures. A submerged narrative rehearses a type of young boys nighttime game in which a flashlight is wielded in a darkened room to produce effects of aerial combat and bombardment. A sense of hostility tinged with terror seeps into commonplace movements Fantasy merges with nightmare, a war of dimly suppressed emotions rages beneath a veneer of household calm In NOCTURNE, found footage is worked so subtly into the fabric of threat that its apperception comes as a shock ploughed from the unconscious. Paul Arthur