''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' is an

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

Stan Brakhage James Stanley Brakhage ( ; January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. Over the course of five decades, Brakhage created a large ...

, released in 1981. The film was partly inspired by

Hieronymus Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oa ...

’s painting of the same name.The Garden of Earthly Delights
Canyon Cinema: Film, Accessed 19 February 2011

Production

''The Garden of Earthly Delights,'' like Brakhage's earlier ''

Mothlight ''Mothlight'' is an experimental film, experimental short film by Stan Brakhage, released in 1963. The film was created without the use of a camera. Description ''Mothlight'' is a silent film, silent "collage film" that incorporates "real world e ...

'', is considered a "

collage film Collage film is a style of film created by juxtaposing found footage from disparate sources. The term has also been applied to the physical collaging of materials onto film stock. Surrealist roots The surrealist movement played a critical role ...

." It was created without the use of a camera, by pasting

montane zone Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

vegetation, such as petals, grasses and leaves, onto strips of clear

film leader A film leader is a length of film attached to the head or tail of a film to assist in threading a projector or telecine. A leader attached to the beginning of a reel is sometimes known as a head leader, or simply head, and a leader attached to the ...

.Elder, R. Bruce (1998) ''The films of Stan Brakhage in the American tradition of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and Charles Olson,'' Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, p389 Brakhage intended the film as "an homage to (but also argument with)

Hieronymous Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oak ...

At the time I made ''The Garden f Earthly Delights', I was very annoyed with Hieronymus Bosch’s painting of the same name, which envisions nature as puffy and sweet, while the humans are suffering these torments. After all, nature suffers as well. As a plant winds itself around, in its desperate reach for sunlight, it undergoes its own torments. We are not the only ones in the world.''A critical cinema: interviews with independent filmmakers,'' University of California Press, p94 (interview dated 15 October 1998)

Brakhage has also cited as inspiration

J.E.H. MacDonald James Edward Hervey MacDonald (1873–1932) was an English-Canadian artist, best known as a member of the Group of Seven who asserted a distinct national identity combined with a common heritage stemming from early modernism in Europe in the ear ...

's ''The Tangled Garden'', and the flower paintings of

Emil Nolde Emil Nolde (born Hans Emil Hansen; 7 August 1867 – 13 April 1956) was a German-Danish painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and was one of the first oil painting and watercolor painters of the ...

. ''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' was produced on

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...

film, and is intended to be screened at 18

frames per second A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

; however, this is not possible for many 16mm projectors.MacDonald, Scott (2001) ''The garden in the machine: a field guide to independent films about place,'' University of California Press, p69, 398 The film runs for a total of 2,496 frames."Putting the Garden Into the Machine: On Brakhage’s "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Karli Lukas
''Senses of Cinema,'' CTEQ Annotations, 26 July 2004 - accessed February 19, 2011 Like Bosch's

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek language, Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) t ...

, Brakhage's film is divided into three sections using alternating black and white leader backgrounds.

Reception

''The Garden of Earthly Delights'' is often viewed as a companion piece to ''Mothlight.'' Karli Lukas, writing for ''

Senses of Cinema ''Senses of Cinema'' is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, ''Senses of Cinema'' publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career ...

'', described the film as "a brilliant illustration of Brakhage’s philosophies regarding the persistence and particularities (or peculiarities) of vision." Adrian Ivakhiv considers the film "a flickering kaleidoscope of visual intensity by which viewers are drawn in to the very act of seeing the light of projected “nature.""Adrian Ivakhiv (2007) "Green Film Criticism and Its Futures," ''Foreign Literature Studies,'' 29, p46-65 Film scholar Scott MacDonald was admiring of the film, remarking that the viewing experience "evokes a complex, multileveled set of implied comparisons between Brakhage's filmmaking and gardening."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garden Of Earthly Delights 1981 animated films 1981 films 1981 short films Films directed by Stan Brakhage Drawn-on-film animated films Collage film American short films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films