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Free Fall
Arthur’s fourth film was inspired in part by a Dylan Thomas poem, entitled The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower. The line which manifested itself in Lipsett’s creative treatment of images is: “The force that drives the flower drives my green age”. He had also written the line on a mirror in his apartment.
Mark Slade, who worked at the Board at the time the film was made believes that “Free Fall” is based on the juxtaposition of The Green Fuse and Arthur Rimbaud’s poem, A Season In Hell. Slade remembers that upon their first meeting Arthur said that he was trying to make “film the way Dylan Thomas made poetry”. Arthur then said “it was impossible in film to do anything so beautiful, but he would like to try”.
The rapid-fire clips of trees and insects were shot in Montreal by Arthur using Norman McLaren’s animation camera as if he were shooting stills. The technique probably had not been used before and the effect is like watching fast-moving black and white impressionist painting. The film is composed, like Arthur’s other films, of many types of images with a sound collage. The theme of ‘the force of nature’ from Dylan’s poem is illustrated in Free Fall’s dynamic rhythms. The pace and tone of the editing and sounds, and the use of silence are especially effective in illuminating the artist’s inspiration. This unique film exposes both the possibilities of the medium and Lipsett’s dynamic sensibility and expression. His ability to express the elusive and sporadic rhythms of nature through film indicate his genius and importance as a filmmaker
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