*Corpus Callosum (Michael Snow, 2002) | Duke Experimental Film Society

*Corpus Callosum
(Michael Snow, 2002, 92 min, Canada, English, 16mm)

-- Presented by Duke Experimental Film Society and Screen/Society

*Corpus Callosum, the film (or tape, or projected light work), is constructed of, de-picts, creates, examines, presents, consists of, and is, "betweens". Between beginning and ending, between "natural" and "artificial", between fiction and fact, between hearing and seeing, between 1956 and 2002. It's a tragi-comedy of the cinematic variables. *Corpus Callosum juxtaposes or counterpoints a realism of normal metamorphosis (two extreme examples: pregnancy, explosions) in believable, "real" interior spaces with "impossible" shape changes (some made possible with digital animation). First the camera, then we in the audience, observe the observations of the "real" people depicted in the obviously staged situations. What we see and what they "see" is involved in shifting modes of belief. There seem to be (though there is no narrative) a Hero and Heroine. However, from scene to scene they are different people costumed identically or altered electronically. The sound – electronic like the picture – is also a continuous metamorphosis and as the film's "nervous system", is as important to the film as the picture. Or: the sound and the picture are two hemispheres joined by the artist. *Corpus Callosum is resolutely "artificial", it not only wants to convince, but also to be a perceived pictorial and musical phenomenon.

"Part old-fashioned Renaissance man, part hardcore avant-gardist, the Canadian painter-photographer-filmmaker-musician Michael Snow gives full vent to his genius in this exhilarating perceptual vaudeville, titled for the ‘central region’ of tissue that acts as a conduit between the brain’s two hemispheres…. *Corpus Callosum is a bonanza of wacky sight gags, outlandish color schemes, and corny visual puns that can be appreciated equally as an abstract Frank Tashlin comedy and as a playful recapitulation of the artist’s career. From the opening reverse zoom through the series of 360-degree pans to the final line animation created by Snow in 1956, this 92-minute feature is a self-curated retrospective, but with a twist.” – J. Hoberman

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