自由的飞翔~~

　　A masterpiece of digitally manipulated, representational-to-abstract images by vet experimental filmmaker Andrew Noren, "Free to Go (Interlude)" continues, yet radically alters, the intensive light-based films Noren has been creating since the 1960s. Although it officially marks the ninth section of Noren's ongoing cycle, "The Adventures of the Exquisite Corpse," this non-narrative, non-actor feature is an eye-popping tour through the high points of modern art. This major statement should be required programming and viewing at cinematheques and institutions as well as fests with avant-garde sections.
　　Although the centuries old "exquisite corpse" game -- in which players each draw a small section of a human body on a piece of paper that is folded and, when put together with the other players' drawings, makes an amusing complete body -- isn't played by Noren literally, he uses it as a model for his bigger multi-part work. Since the cycle is in progress, there's no way to know what the total work will look like. But with Noren's recent shift to video, married with a muscular approach to digitized effects, latest part of the cycle -- the ninth part -- is an exceptional work in itself.

　　Knowledge of Noren's opus isn't essential, but Noren-watchers will be struck at how concerns with light in his past films (such as his '70s period "Charmed Particles") have given way to a much larger realm. Pic is roughly divided into three sections: an 18-minute B&W portion dominated by moving images on a freeway; a 19-minute section of mostly city street images in electrifyingly saturated colors; and a 25-minute section, in B&W, looking at pedestrians.
　　Pic is bookended with a silhouetted figure, who seems to be taking a picture, layered over various moving shots which become increasingly abstracted through a range of techniques, including solarization and pixillation. Although Noren is known for loving to improvise his shots, "Free" is actually elegantly constructed with musical motifs (although it's entirely silent) and pairings; an early and stunning B&W sequence, for example, turning geometrical patterns (strongly resembling Native American design) into kaleidoscopic motion is repeated later on.
　　Color section is avant-garde cinema at its most sensually beautiful, transforming otherwise mundane shots of bustling city streets into pure images that swim with constantly shifting color fields, pulsing across the screen at the exact cadence of a heartbeat. Myriad art historical references pepper the work, with the most inspired a bow to Georges Seurat's pointillism as a zoom in from a wider street scene fills screen with giant pixels, followed by a stunning zoom out.
　　Closing section takes black-and-white to nearly mind-altering extremes ("Free to Go" is also a tribute to '60s psychedelic art), as pedestrians' legs, feet and shadows are turned into something like an endless loop of Rorsharch Test shapes.
　　Image resolution is exquisite, care of painstaking vid projection at Toronto Fest.