On a winter's day, a woman stretches near a window then sits in a bathtub of water. She's happy. Her lover is nearby; there are close ups of her face, her pregnant belly, and his hands caressing her. She gives birth: we see the crowning of the baby's head, then the birth itself; we watch a pair of hands tie off and cut the umbilical cord. With the help of the attending hands, the mother expels the placenta. The infant, a baby girl, nurses. We return from time to time to the bath scene. By the end, dad's excited; mother and daughter rest.
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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
One of my all time favorites.
Good concept, poorly executed.
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
"Window Water Baby Moving" is possibly influential experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage's most well-known film. In this masterpiece, he simply documents the birth of his first child. And it is possibly the greatest film he's ever made.To be fair, I haven't seen Brakhage's "Dog Star Man", which also looks like a masterwork, but whether or not it is truly his best film, it is still a beautiful film.Stan Brakhage uses his normal fast paced, experimental editing that has been used in his other documentary works (ex. "The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes"), as well as some very artistic, and highly experimental, camera-work. Brakhage's documentary films aren't just simple home movies, but great works of art, just look at the film! Every shot is an artistic masterpiece, and it is a truly great document of life and love.Although the film uses highly graphic imagery to tell it's story, it is really a sweet document. Yes, the birth is shown in EXTREME detail, but, at the end, you see how loving these new parents are. The mother (Jane Brakhage) holds her newborn in her arms, and the father (Stan Brakhage) looks greatly excited and happy, he's hoping up and down, with a great smile on his face.Stan Brakhage has proved himself, in my opinion, to not only be one of the great experimental filmmakers, but of of the great documentary filmmakers, as well.
Well.. this 13 minute documentary short film from over 55 years ago can be summarized pretty easily. Basically it is a woman giving birth. And that woman is the first wife of the late filmmaker Stan Brakhage (Robert Sanders). 4 more kids were to follow for the pair before they divorced in 1987. Basically, it is not too uncommon that fathers film the birth of their children, but looking at the material this was probably a bit different. Anyway, I am fairly certain that Janne was happy during the next births that Stan was not filming her from very very close. I could only imagine what that must have been like, a pretty awkward situation I guess. Anyway, I am a bit familiar with the works of Brakhage and this is certainly different compared to the rest of his gigantic body of work. I don't know if it is better, but it's different. Maybe that's why this is maybe his most known work. Still, I believe this is really too personal and frequent (women giving birth) to be really relevant to anybody except members of the Brakhage family themselves. I can see no filmmaking genius in here, sorry. Not recommended.
Window Water Baby Moving (1962) **** (out of 4) I'm not quite sure where the line is drawn when it comes to art and a simple home movie but this film is certainly the best of both. Director Brakhage made this eleven-minute film dealing with the birth of his first child. The mixture of something beautiful like art and something ugly like a home movie is rather interesting for the story as there's a lot of ugliness that goes along with childbirth but at the same time there's also something beautiful about it and this film perfectly captures both. Nothing during the birth sequence is kept to the imagination as the director gets the camera very close to where all the action is going on and he doesn't shy away from showing anything. It's rather amazing that his wife was such a good sport because there had to be times where he was in the way of the birth just to get certain shots. The film shows a lot of this ugly, bloody mess but it's also done very beautifully. The birth shots and edited with shots of Brakhage and his wife loving on one another and the way this editing is done really captures the love and affection the director must have been feeling.
Okay, we had to watch this in film school, and I thought it wasn't anywhere nearly as impressive as people say. I was accused of being an idiot, but I'm sorry this film just didn't speak to me the way it did to others. Brakhage is good, I will not say otherwise, but I don't feel that this short is the pinnacle of his career that I was led to believe it is.
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