Rent Bill Viola: Hatsu-Yume (1981)
1.0 of 5 from 1 ratings
0h 56min
- General info
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- Synopsis:
Hatsu-Yume (First Dream) is Bill Viola's masterpiece, the greatest work by one of the most important video artists in the world. A spiritual allegory equating light and dark with life and death. 'Hatsu-Yume' was produced in Japan in 1981 while Viola was artist-in-residence at the Sony Corporation. The title refers to Japanese folklore, wherein things done on the first day of a new year are significant. But the tape is not to be taken literally as a dream. For Viola, it's more like the aboriginal concept of dreamtime, the creation of the world. That's why, as a whole and in its parts, 'Hatsu-Yume' progresses from darkness to light, stillness to motion, silence to sound, simplicity to complexity, nature to civilization. There are two interwoven themes: the dark water world of fish, and Buddhist rituals invoking the souls of dead ancestors. As in a dream, we frequently can't tell if these wordless streams of image and sound are unfolding in real time, slow-motion or time-lapse. A work of extravagant pictorial beauty, 'Hatsu-Yume' represents the most painterly use of light in the history of video. Form is content: the light that lures fish to their death protects human life. At once ominous, majestic, mystical and deeply spiritual, 'Hatsu-Yume' is the work of a visionary poet of image and sound. - Directors:
- Bill Viola
- Creators:
- Bill Viola
- Writers:
- Bill Viola
- Aka:
- Bill Viola: Hatsu-Yume (First Dream)
- Studio:
- Quantum Leap
- Genres:
- Documentary, Special Interest
