Layers of Images

Michael Snow said of his 1967 film Wavelength, “The space starts at the camera’s (spectator’s) eye, is in the air, then is on the screen, then is within the screen (the mind).” Raymond Bellour examines this idea of accumulating layers of images, from the outer to the inner eye, concluding that what this film reveals is the experience of film itself. This gradual unfolding of this vision has been at the heart of at least three of Snow's works: the slideshow Slidelength, the installation Place des peaux, and WVLNT - Wavelength For Those Who Don't Have the Time, which folds the original film onto itself, opening the work to a new visibility.

Preceded by a screening of Snow’s Wavelength (1967) at 2:30pm.

Raymond Bellour, critic and theorist of literature and film, is the Critical Inquiry Distinguished Visiting Professor for Spring 2016. He is the Director of Research Emeritus at the CNRS (Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique) in Paris. He is the author of, among others, The Analysis of Film (1979) and Le Corps du cinéma (2009), and the co-founder of the French film journal Trafic. Co-sponsored by Critical Inquiry, the Department of Cinema and Media Studies, and the Film Studies Center.