Decasia

Decasia
Directed by Bill Morrison
Produced by Bill Morrison
Europäischer Musikmonat
Daniel Zippi
Written by Bill Morrison
Music by Michael Gordon
Edited by Bill Morrison
Distributed by Icarus Films
Release date
  • January 2002 (2002-01)
Running time
 67 minutes
Country United States
Language no dialogue

Decasia is a 2002 American collage film by Bill Morrison, featuring an original score by Michael Gordon.

Summary

The film is a meditation on old, decaying silent films, featuring segments of earlier movies re-edited and integrated into a new narrative. Critic Glen Kenny described Decasia as an "abstract narrative about mortality in all of its manifestations."[1]

It begins and ends with scenes of a dervish and is bookended with old footage showing how film is processed. Nothing was done to accelerate the decomposition of the actual film prints, some of which were copied from the University of South Carolina's Moving Image Research Collections.[2]

The film's musical soundtrack features several detuned pianos and an orchestra playing out of phase with itself, adding to the fractured and decomposing nature of the film.

Two films that were incorporated into Decasia have been positively identified: J. Farrell MacDonald's The Last Egyptian (1914), written, produced, and based on the novel by L. Frank Baum; and William S. Hart's Truthful Tulliver (1916).

Legacy

In 2013, Decasia was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. It was the first film from the 21st century to be selected.[3] Decasia was included in the September 2014 box set release of Bill Morrison's collected works, from Icarus Films.[4]

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ Morrison, Bill. "Portrait of Decay: Bill Morrison on Decasia". Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  3. ↑ "Library of Congress announces 2013 National Film Registry selections" (Press release). Washington Post. December 18, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Amazon.com: Bill Morrison: Collected Works (1996 - 2013): Vijay Iyer, Johann Johannsson, Michael Gordon, Bill Frisell, Bill Morrison: Movies & TV".


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