Nude Woman By Waterfall is a short film from 1920, directed by Claude Friese-Greene, featuring a nude woman by a waterfall, and the same woman, not so nude, upon a cliff top. I reviewed it earlier in the year (well, “reviewed” it), and really loved it. It’s beautiful, beguiling, mysterious, odd, sad. All the best things in film, really.
Anyway, I rewatched it again today, because the always excellent Haiku Salut (who previously released/toured a live soundtrack to Buster Keaton’s The General) have released a new soundtrack for it, called Portrait In Dust.
Recorded as part of a project to re-score two films for the BFI (the other was 4 And 20 Fit Girls, from 1940, which they paired with Pattern Thinker), Portrait In Dust is a lovely piece of minimalist melancholy, which perfectly underscores the slightly unsettling ethereality of the film.
Anyway, it’s brilliant and I love it.
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Notes
1. I watched this on the BFI Player, while simultaneously listening to Haiku Salut on bandcamp
2. Earlier in the year I made a re-edit of this film, using the track Messy Hearts by Moon Ate The Dark as accompaniment.
3. In which I used all of Nude Woman By Waterfall except the shots of the nude woman by the waterfall.
4. I had hoped to show it somewhere
5. Sometime
6. But I fear that now the chance has gone
7. For a variety of reasons
8. Not least because Haiku Salut’s soundtrack is perfect.
9. And also everywhere is closed.
10. And always now shall be.
11. Maybe I should just project it out into the night
12. Onto the bamboo at the end of the garden
13. As they rustle in the wind
14. And weep in the rain.
15. Anyway I’ve added it to youtube here if you want a watch, but have no idea who long it will stay there, if their copyright robots allow it to live.
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Film Information
Title: Nude Woman By Waterfall
Director: Claude Friese-Greene
Year: 1920
Duration: 12 minutes
Watch: BFI; youtube (extract only)