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
I saw this short a few days ago at the Rotterdam Film Course for the International Rotterdam Film Festival and it blew me away. I had read some information about this short and wasn't that impressed, after all there are loads of programmes nowadays on TV that handle this subject as entertainment fodder.
What I did not know up front was the fact that Stan Brakhage never uses sound. That's probably where the power lies. The pictures were so incredibly strong and vibrant because of lighting, color and the sheer graphic visions Brakhage presents to the viewers that sound would have been distracting to say the least.
The pictures are not for the easily spooked persons or women who are thinking about having a baby. This is a straightforward account of child birth with all the gore, blood and beauty that accompanies it. It opened my eyes, 'cause I had never seen anything like it before in my life, and it is after all the most natural happening in the world.
After 13 minutes you will be left breathless.
10/10
What I did not know up front was the fact that Stan Brakhage never uses sound. That's probably where the power lies. The pictures were so incredibly strong and vibrant because of lighting, color and the sheer graphic visions Brakhage presents to the viewers that sound would have been distracting to say the least.
The pictures are not for the easily spooked persons or women who are thinking about having a baby. This is a straightforward account of child birth with all the gore, blood and beauty that accompanies it. It opened my eyes, 'cause I had never seen anything like it before in my life, and it is after all the most natural happening in the world.
After 13 minutes you will be left breathless.
10/10
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?
Answer