Decasia (2002)

Too much of everything

Sorry, this movie sucks

Captivating movie !

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Having seen Lyrical Nitrate and been hypnotized by the beauty of it and of the artistry possible to be created out of found footage (even as it disintegrates), I bought DECASIA based on the reviews and in the hope that the same creative lightening would strike twice.I was much disappointed.The moments of "artistic" decay are few and far between. A previous reviewer pointed out (most poetically) the highlights of the film, but the majority of the film is endless -endless -endless clips of just poor quality footage.To make matters worse, most of the clips, which went on far too long to hold interest, were actually slowed down to make them LONGER. Case in point is the whirling dervish footage, which not only is slowed down, but also repeated several times. Then there is the procession of camels which drag across the screen in slow motion to the point that I had to fast-forward just to get past them. Neither sequence, by the way, was particularly decayed or showed any damage of note; certainly nothing to merit slowing them down to such extents.Likewise, a procession of schoolchildren through a convent garden is slowed to such an excruciating crawl that one actually misses the fact that this sequence IS damaged until you speed it up.My other complaint (and an artistic mis-step on the part of the film-maker) is the fact that black-and white film stock was used instead of color. As Lyrical Nitrate demonstrated, part of the artistic value of decayed nitrate (even if it was a "black & white" film) is the palette of color produced by the chemical reaction of the film stock.Lost are the yellows, oranges, rusts, browns and reds which might have lent some genuine visual interest to this otherwise rather bland collage.I personally would not recommend this film and would instead direct interested parties to the vastly superior Lyrical Nitrate.

This movie is a found-footage montage of archival imagery that has rotted and degraded over time. A 55 piece orchestra plays with detuned and broken instruments in order to increase the feeling of perpetual decay. This film works in cycles, with lots of spinning objects, circular editing, and focus on the film footage in its reel form itself. Made in 2001 (?), I believe this is a comment on the impending death of film.It's also really visceral. In some shots it almost seems as if we're watching a specter world. This helps create the unnerving realization that when we watch movies, we tend to watching people who are already dead but don't know it yet, who move along their tracks and paths within the frame despite the fact that they've been buried long ago. There's another shot with a boxer, but we can't see what he's fighting because the decay has taken over the right hand frame. It literally looks as if he's fighting the decay itself (and almost winning) until it explodes across the frame and engulfs everything.It's a really good art film for anyone interested in more experimental approaches, and I'd recommend finding it on DVD.--PolarisDiB

Being an avid film restoration film, I was eagerly awaiting the chance to see this film. This film is made up of random bits of film, from various film archives around the world, which has been spliced together at random. The one connecting feature of this film is that all film used is rotting, decaying, faded, bubbling...in other words the film is decomposing. Kudos to the filmmaker for salvaging some of this film and letting the public see what can happen to film if it has not be stored or cared for properly. The footage is totally random, some nature films, newsreels, features...countries featured include the United States, Turkey, Japan, Morocco....scenes of stars like William S. Hart, Larry Semon, Mary Pickford....scenes of dignitaries arriving aboard ships from 1920s newsreels; 1950s educational films.....a really vast array.However the film can be agonizing to sit through, especially because it is in incredibly slow motion, and most of the time we get only a fleeting glimpse as to what is actually in the film frame, most of the time the entire image is distorted. I watched the movie in fast forward, and even then it was too slow. The movie has very haunting music, and this film could easily be shown in October as part of a scary movie festival.

This film was put together in order to be a visual accompaniment to a somewhat atonal, machine-like symphony. On that level, this film doesn't work for me. The pulse that is needed to synchronize with the pacing of the film is never there; it's just meandering along annoyingly on the soundtrack, which gives one the sensation of trying to go into a trance to random sounds of traffic. The experience of trance is certainly one that is the objective of any viewer watching this film. The film is even bookended by visions of a Sufi dancer in order to set that theme. `In this film' his ghostlike image tells us, `we are going to voyage through varying kinds of oddness in a dizzying slow motion that is pulsated by the rhythm of the effects (the effects are made up of scratches, blotches, warping, and other manipulations done to the film)'. The images are astounding, mostly consisting of stock footage of turn-of-the-century images. One has to guess how much of the footage was already partially damaged by age, and how much of it was manipulated by the filmmaker. Doesn't matter. Whether the images are haunting, humourous, beautiful or obscure, the voyage is a fascinating one. BUT... only with the right music to accompany it. I would suggest that those who view this film try out different music to see what works for them. That may be ‘sacrilegious', and certainly, I would never replace a score of most films I watch (I did that once accidentally when I happened to turn on `The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T' while listening to some acid jazz. What a trip that was!). Call it post-modern revisionism, or just call it audience participation. Whatever works for you: techno, ambient, classical, jazz, or acid jazz... I personally had some terrific experiences with Massive Attack and Primal Scream, but I'm anxious to try out lots of different kinds of music in future viewings. Art isn't a product or an object; it's a vehicle that transports its observer to another state of mind. I'd say this film is a nifty little spaceship/time machine. Don't ask what it means, just set the appropriate music for your course and have a nice trip!