Shift (1974)

For Gehr SHIFT broke new ground hence perhaps a pun in its title The film is his first to employ extensive montage The actors are all mechanical a series of cars and trucks filmed from a height of several stories as they perform on a threelane city street Gehr isolates one or two vehicles at a time inverting some shots so that a car hangs from the asphalt like a bat from a rafter using angles so severe the traffic often seems to be sliding off the earth and employing a reverse motion so abrupt that the players frequently exit the scene as though yanked from a stage by the proverbial hook A sparse score of traffic noises accompanies the spastic ballet mecanique J Hoberman