TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

Double, Accumulate, by André Habib

One of the techniques that several found footage filmmakers would explore with respect to doubling and repetition is that of reproducing the image symmetrically, as in a mirror. This technique gives the impression of an image doubled and folded, engulfed by the middle. It generates sometimes stunning visual effects. The technique can be carried out with an artisanal 16 mm optical printer, as Al Razutis did when making Ghost: Image (1976-79), the fourth part of the series Visual Essays: Origins of Film. After having explored the arrival of the train (Lumière’s Train (Arriving at the Station), 1979) and the world of Méliès (Méliès Catalogue, 1973; Sequels in transfigured time, 1976), here Razutis explored the fantastic, following its evolution from Dada, Surrealist, Expressionist and Symbolist cinema up to poetic realism and horror movies. Taking short clips from films in these traditions, which he reduced to their Rorschach elements, in this work the fantastic quality of the images is literally generated by doubling and mirroring.