La Region Centrale

La Region Centrale

16mm, color, sound, 190 min
This film is in five reels and requires two identical projectors for continuous projection. Instructions are included for cueing from reel to reel. "This new, three hour film by the Canadian Michael ...
Rental format: 16mm

Stills

About

This film is in five reels and requires two identical projectors for continuous projection. Instructions are included for cueing from reel to reel. "This new, three hour film by the Canadian Michael Snow is an extraordinary cinematic monument. No physical action, not even the presence of man, a fabulous game with nature and machine which puts into question our perceptions, our mental habits, and in many respects renders moribund existing cinema: the latest Fellini, Kubrick, Buñuel etc. For LA REGION CENTRALE, Snow had a special camera apparatus constructed by a technician in Montreal, an apparatus capable of moving in all directions: horizontally, vertically, laterally or in a spiral. The film is one continuous movement across space, intercutting occasionally the X serving as a point of reference and permitting one to take hold of stable reality. Snow has chosen to film a deserted region, without the least trace of human life, 100 miles to the north of Sept-Isles in the province of Quebec: a sort of plateau without trees, opening onto a vast circular prospect of the surrounding mountains. "In the first frames, the camera disengages itself slowly from the ground in a circular movement. Progressively, the space fragments, vision inverts in every sense, light everywhere dissolves appearance. We become insensible accomplices to a sort of cosmic movement. A sound track, rigorously synchronized, composed from the original sound which programmed the camera, supplies a permanent counterpoint. "Michael Snow pushes toward the absurd the essential nature of this 'seventh' art which is endlessly repeated as being above the visual. He catapults us into the heart of a world before speech, before arbitrarily composed meanings, even subject. He forces us to rethink not only cinema, but our universe." – Louis Marcorelles, Le Monde "Michael Snow's LA REGION CENTRALE can be described as heroic bordering on the apocalyptic. ... [I]t is an epochal film because of the extent of the camera movements and its transformation of space .... Gravity is destroyed ... the horizon line has been erased and forgotten and the land mass has been transformed into a whirling flat disc, a blurred flash of light with no mass or volume, rotating wildly through the sky .... Snow's mountain landscape has become a reflection on the solar system." – Bill Simon, Artforum "... an unimaginable film, literally like nothing you have ever seen before ...." – John W. Locke, Artforum

Films

  • Other films by this artist in our catalogue

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    A to Z
    Animation
    Experimental

    A to Z
    Michael Snow

    16mm, black and white, sound, 7 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Erotic
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    New York Eye And Ear Control
    Experimental

    New York Eye And Ear Control
    Michael Snow

    16mm, black and white, sound, 34 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Music
    • Environment / Nature
    • Arts / Artists
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    Short Shave
    Experimental

    Short Shave
    Michael Snow

    16mm, black and white, sound, 4 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    WVLNT: Wavelength For Those Who Don't Have the Time
    Experimental

    WVLNT: Wavelength For Those Who Don't Have the Time
    Michael Snow

    color, sound, 15 min
    Rental format: DVD NTSC
    • Films About Film
    • Structural
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    Standard Time
    Experimental

    Standard Time
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 8 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Landscape / Architecture
    • Environment / Nature
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    Wavelength
    Experimental

    Wavelength
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 45 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Arts / Artists
    • Structural
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    Back and Forth
    Experimental

    Back and Forth
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 52 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Philosophical
    • Psychology / Mental Health
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    One Second In Montreal
    Experimental

    One Second In Montreal
    Michael Snow

    16mm, black and white, sound, 26 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Structural
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    Side Seat Paintings Slides Sound Film
    Experimental

    Side Seat Paintings Slides Sound Film
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 20 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Rameau's Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
    Experimental

    Rameau's Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 267 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, DVD PAL
    • Political / Social Activism
    • Films About Film
    • Arts / Artists
    • Structural
    • Ethnographic
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    Breakfast
    Experimental

    Breakfast
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 15 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Psychology / Mental Health
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    Presents
    Experimental

    Presents
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 98 min
    Rental formats: 16mm, DVD PAL
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    So Is This
    Experimental

    So Is This
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, silent, 48 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Arts / Artists
    • Political / Social Activism
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    Seated Figures
    Experimental

    Seated Figures
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 40 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Structural
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    See You Later/Au Revoir
    Experimental

    See You Later/Au Revoir
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 18 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    To Lavoisier, Who Died in The Reign of Terror
    Experimental

    To Lavoisier, Who Died in The Reign of Terror
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 52 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Science / Medicine
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    The Living Room
    Experimental

    The Living Room
    Michael Snow

    16mm, color, sound, 20 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    *Corpus Callosum
    Experimental

    *Corpus Callosum
    Michael Snow

    16mm (from DV), black and white, sound, 90 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Structural