Tonight at a glance
- Runtime
- 32 min
- Language
- English
- Country
- United States
Why tonight?
- Under two hours — there is still an evening on the other side of it.
The story
At a morgue, forensic pathologists conduct autopsies of the corpses assigned. "S. Brakhage, entering, WITH HIS CAMERA, one of the forbidden, terrific locations of our culture, the autopsy room. It is a place wherein, inversely, life is cherished, for it exists to affirm that no one of us may die without our knowing exactly why. All of us, in the person of the coroner, must see that, for ourselves, with our own eyes. It is a room full of appalling particular intimacies, the last ditch of individuation. Here our vague nightmare of mortality acquires the names and faces of OTHERS. This last is a process that requires a WITNESS; and what 'idea' may finally have inserted itself into the sensible world we can still scarcely guess, for the CAMERA would seem the perfect Eidetic Witness, staring with perfect compassion where we can scarcely bear to glance." – Hollis Frampton
- autopsy
- silent film
- forensic science
- pathologist
- short film
The look
A few frames, chosen rather than collected.
The bill
- Directed
- Stan Brakhage
Production
- Rating
- 6.5 / 10 · 62 ratings
If this stayed with you
Then these are the nearest things Cue holds — chosen for what they share with it, not for what happens to be popular.
