Window Water Baby Moving
- 1959
- 13m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
2.5K
YOUR RATING
Stan Brakhage films the birth of his first child, Myrrena.Stan Brakhage films the birth of his first child, Myrrena.Stan Brakhage films the birth of his first child, Myrrena.
Photos
Stan Brakhage
- Self
- (uncredited)
Myrrena Schwegmann
- Self (baby being born)
- (uncredited)
Jane Wodening
- Self
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn the early 80's, Brakhage screened 'Window Water Baby Moving' to Andrei Tarkovsky who wasn't impressed with the film. Brakhage said in an interview: "The first film was Window Water Baby Moving. First of all I got nervous because Olga, who is teetering over me on the bureau, begins to sway. I've seen people faint at that film and I don't know, maybe she's never seen childbirth before. And then I see Tarkovsky's wife averting her face from the screen at times as you get to see some of the more explicit details of childbirth. ... Tarkovsky starts talking in rapid Russian, with Zanussi answering him, and whatever he's saying it's obviously angry. Finally, after a lot of these exchanges, Jane had the presence of mind to say, "What's going on? What's he saying?" So Zanussi starts translating and he says, "Well..." and we all wait, "Well... he says," and we wait some more, "he says that Art must have a mystery to it and this is too scientific to be Art.""
- ConnectionsFeatured in By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volume One (2003)
Featured review
Great
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.
**** (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.
- Michael_Elliott
- Jul 8, 2008
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Also known as
- Window, Water, Baby, Moving
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
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Top Gap
By what name was Window Water Baby Moving (1959) officially released in Canada in English?
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