'Zabriskie Point' Is Everywhere at Once
Filmmaker Daniel Kremer goes beyond the big screen to examine and expose cinema's fascination with a specific setting, and to expand on his own dreams and visions.
It’s a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point was generously made available for this review by the filmmaker, and has not officially been released anywhere as of this writing.
Dear Moviegoers,
“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.” - Willy Wonka
I know that Arthur O'Shaughnessy originally wrote the above line of poetry. Still, I think of it - and use it here - as being direct from Gene Wilder’s portrayal of the fantastical chocolatier Willy Wonka in the iconic musical Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. In the film, Wilder/Wonka uses it as both an ambiguous answer to a dismissive statement and a beautifully spoken interlude of sincerity that breaks up a scene of childlike sloth and joy. This line came to me midway through watching Daniel Kremer’s brilliant essay film It’s a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point, and I’m still at a loss as to why exactly it did. The easiest reason would maybe be that the line of poetry and Kremer’s film are superficially connected with their use of dreams and dreaming. The more difficult reason could involve my own interpretations of cinema, and my reckoning with being a “dreamer” myself.
Who knows? I do. Probably. Somewhere.
Filmmaker Daniel Kremer has crafted such an amazing work of biography, documentary, essay, argument, and almost damn near possession, that it should be considered an end-all/be-all moment of sorts in film theory and history. This is not hyperbole - it’s a movie that’s a grand statement with humble punctuation. It’s a mic drop without the arrogance. Stunning, it is all the way.
Of course, the assumed conceit and expected gimmick that’s suggested in the title, a mashup of the movies It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Zabriskie Point, is likely to be the initial hook for the video freaks and Youtube-Poopers out and about. But, Kremer goes so far as to not only use this element as the quote “low-hanging fruit” that it is but as a way to delineate the lines in the sand of American culture in the 1960s and a little beyond. The delineation comes early on with the assassination of JFK, which took place mere days after It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World released in theaters. The event only further cemented that film’s place as an escapist movie, as moviegoers sought comfort from grim reality. Where Mad World was representative of culture as it used to be - the “last Camelot film” as Daniel Kremer calls it - Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point, released at the tail end of the decade, showcased itself with a counter-culture that was on the edge of losing its assignment. Made before and way after a tragedy, the films share a close thread, that is where they were shot - Death Valley.
Daniel Kremer takes on the pre and post-advances in the cultural and cinematic revolution by way of making real what was tangible to him but that which is abstract to everyone else: his own dreams. It’s a personal film, as Kremer opens and uses throughout footage of a news report that he was featured in when younger, where his love for art films, specifically Zabriskie Point, is singled out. I can imagine the home audience watching that report being charmed and maybe a little confused in a cutesy way by his interests and obsessions as a child. No matter, as Kremer is just fine and adjusted. As an adult, with this essay film, he’s not making sense of any poor moments in his life, but rather he’s celebrating his interests and announcing them to the world with a punch of thesis and exploration. Death Valley is the landscape. The 60s is the general era. And cinema is the lens and the record. Kremer’s dreams are made of this, as is the medium of cinema itself, whether it or we recognize this or not. End-all/be-all. 5/5
Sincerely Yours in Moviegoing,
⚜️🍿
To support movie reviews like this one, please consider becoming a supporting subscriber.