''Variations'' is a 1998 American short silent

avant-garde film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

directed by

Nathaniel Dorsky Nathaniel Dorsky (born 1943 in New York City), is an American experimental filmmaker and film editor who has been making films since 1963. He attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio where he developed his interest in filmmaking. He won a ...

. It is the second film in a set of "Four Cinematic Songs", which also includes ''Triste'', ''Arbor Vitae'', and ''Love's Refrain''.

Production

Since the 1960s, Dorsky had operated by shooting footage without a specific use in mind and then editing films together from the available shots. For ''Variations'', he began to rely exclusively on newly recorded material. Dorsky worked using a

Bolex Bolex International S. A. is a Swiss manufacturer of motion picture cameras based in Yverdon located in Canton of Vaud. The most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. Originally Bol, the company was founded by C ...

camera, recording primarily on

16 mm 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, edu ...

Kodachrome Kodachrome is the brand name for a color reversal film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935. It was one of the first successful color materials and was used for both cinematography and still photography. For many years Kodachrome was widely used ...

25 stock. Dorsky's compositions in ''Variations'' are influenced by

Early Renaissance Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...

painting. He noted the era's early use of perspective before the development of

vanishing point A vanishing point is a point on the image plane of a perspective drawing where the two-dimensional perspective projections of mutually parallel lines in three-dimensional space appear to converge. When the set of parallel lines is perpendicul ...

s. For Dorsky, ''Variations'' marked a progression in his polyvalent editing style. He drew connections between shots based on elements like colors, patterns, or iconography. Dorsky sequenced the shots so that they could link back to earlier shots in the

montage Montage may refer to: Arts and entertainment Filmmaking and films * Montage (filmmaking), a technique in film editing * ''Montage'' (2013 film), a South Korean film Music * Montage (music), or sound collage * ''Montage'' (Block B EP), 201 ...

, beyond the

cut Cut may refer to: Common uses * The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely-directed force ** A type of wound ** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past ** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment ** Cut (ea ...

s that connect them. By using this strategy, he aimed "to make a montage that opens up yet accumulates."

Release

The film screened in the "Views From the Avant-Garde" program of the 1998

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...

. In 2000 it was featured in the

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...

Reception

Stephen Holden called the film "visually compelling", asking, "Is there a more beautiful cinematic image than a plastic shopping bag gently blown by the wind across a stretch of pavement?" Paul Arthur wrote for ''

Film Comment ''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film Co ...

'' that it "might be the pinnacle of a long and distinguished career", praising the way Dorsky's "observation of shapes, textures, movements, and colors of mostly commonplace realities organized into densely unhurried skeins of interconnected motifs". Kent Jones likened Dorsky's approach to collecting images to a "a nineteenth-century naturalist combing the woods for new species of fauna" and described ''Variations'' as "a film that pulses with serenity." Arthur named it one of the best films of 1998, and Jones placed it fourth on his year-end list. Dorsky was contacted by the production staff for the feature film '' American Beauty'', asking how director Sam Mendes could view ''Variations''. The completed film features a scene of a plastic bag blowing in the wind, and upon its release, film critic Stephen Holden wrote that it "borrows an image (and an entire esthetic of beauty)" from ''Variations''. Dorsky stated that, because of the existence of many similar images in earlier films, he was unsure that his shot was appropriated.

References

External links

''Variations''
at

's official site
''Variations''
at

Canyon Cinema Canyon Cinema is an American nonprofit organization for distributing independent, avant-garde, and artist-made films. After starting in the 1960s as an exhibition program, it grew to include a nationwide newsletter and a distribution cooperative. ...

* {{IMDb title, 1910665 1990s avant-garde and experimental films 1998 short films American avant-garde and experimental films American silent short films Films directed by Nathaniel Dorsky Non-narrative films Silent films in color 1990s American films