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Description

It is a simple film, a single take of two hundred feet, without camera movement, without any titles. Let me quote my description of the film written for the FilmMaker's Cooperative Catalogue: 'Melting shows the natural monostructrual disinitegration of a strawberry sundae, its passage from rigidity to softness, from edibility to waste. The spoon resting on the plate refers to the human presence, which lurks behind the screen declining to interfere with that transpires.' To these notes, I would like to add a few more disconnected observations. The decay of the sundae in 'Melting' is also a metaphor for geological erosion and other processes too vast and slow to film. Making this film is morally analogous to filming a murder or a suicide. I should have saved the sundae so someone could eat it instead of placidly filming its destruction. However it is a humorous film which some people seem to enjoy. Others resent it. The music, taken from Olivier Messiaen's 'Livre D'Orgue', rather arbitrarily suggests 'La Fin Du Monde' by Abel Gance. Like Parallaxis, Melting creates an artificial time without editing. But instead of stretching time, it condenses it, again by a factor of twelve. It was influenced by those Disney nature films which show the opening of a flower in two seconds. But since I always thought these sequences were paced too quickly, I slowed the action down considerably. Instead of creating a quick spectacular effect, I wanted to show a continuous change that is imperceptible from moment to moment, but is clearly visible ever the period of time it takes to project the film.
[Source: Thom Andersen]