Review of The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes (1972) by Bryan W — 14 Aug 2010

A terrifyingly naked and matter-of-fact look something that we tend to take for granted: what happens to our bodies after we die. Few films carry this amount of shock value in so short a time, and even by modern standards it is unparalleled in its depiction of what one might call gore; nevertheless, it is a documentary of unparalleled accuracy.

Jean-Luc Godard once said that every edit is a lie, and he's completely right. Documentary is perhaps the best example of this policy, as the events therein, though taken from real situations, are chopped up to suit the director's vision. Even worse, when people know they are being filmed, they act much differently than they would in real life.

This film's protagonists are corpses in a mortuary who cannot primp or present themselves as they'd like to be. With positively no sound, the images retain an knockout impact and the editing emerges as truly being for the purpose of moving the proceedings along.

Many who watch this film may state that Brakhage is a voyeuristic, disgusting pervert with no respect for humanity or the sacred nature of death. The last part may be true, but it's plain to see that the intention here is not to shock or teach any lessons. It's simply a glimpse of something you may never see, or want to see, in every day life.