A Hollis Frampton Odyssey

A Hollis Frampton Odyssey. Hollis Frampton, 1966-1979.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #607, released 2012. Some English language, some with no dialogue track. Compiled runtime approximately 266 minutes.

Some of these films are among the most intellectually complicated and rewarding compositions ever created. Many also are very entertaining. 

The selected “Pans” from the  Straits of Magellan are nine 1-minute films. Two of these nine, Pan 697 and Pan 699, show the butchering of a cow, and a child torturing a bullfrog on a fishing line, respectively. These two short films come near the end of the series and easily can be skipped without damaging the artistic impact of Frampton’s earlier works.

The Criterion release includes:

• Manual of Arms (1966)
• Process Red (1966)
• Maxwell’s Demon (1968)
• Surface Tension (1968)
• Carrots & Peas (1969)
• Lemon (1969)
• Zorns Lemma (1970)

Films from Hapax Legomena
• (nostalgia) (1971)
• Poetic Justice (1972)
• Critical Mass (1971)

Films from Magellan

• The Birth of Magellan: Cadenza I (1977–1980)
• Straits of Magellan: Pan 0 and Pan 1 (1969-1974)
• INGENIVM NOBIS IPSA PVELLA FECIT, Part I (1975)
• Magellan: At the Gates of Death, Part I: The Red Gate 1, 0 (1976)

• Straits of Magellan: Pan 2 (1969-1974)

• Straits of Magellan: Pan 3 and Pan 4 (1969-1974)

• Straits of Magellan: Pan 697 and Pan 698 (1969-1974)
• Winter Solstice (1974)
• Straits of Magellan: Pan 699 and Pan 700 (1969-1974)

• The Death of Magellan: Gloria! (1979)

@ BL