Action at a Distance

In Gidals films the first level of resistance that of the filmmaker to the lure of the object is chiefly inscribed through the action of the camera in its looking at the space variously through motion distance focal lengths effect on perspective zoom or focus The second level the attempt to distanciate the spectator from the identification with the enunciator is chiefly inscribed through devices like repetition graining out or darkening out of the image in printing or disruptions in the flow of images and motion It is particularly in the devices of the second level of distanciation the effects on the screen of material flatness grain light movement where Gidal in an attempt to produce a condition for the spectator of response to the film rather than identification with the filmmaker that he has recourse to those features intrinsic to film