Notes on the Circus

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

The short film is a montage of sped up video clips of The Ringling Brothers Circus in action set to a musical track. The film is separated into four segments, each segment which focuses on d... Read allThe short film is a montage of sped up video clips of The Ringling Brothers Circus in action set to a musical track. The film is separated into four segments, each segment which focuses on different acts within the circus. The later segments often incorporate clips from earlier s... Read allThe short film is a montage of sped up video clips of The Ringling Brothers Circus in action set to a musical track. The film is separated into four segments, each segment which focuses on different acts within the circus. The later segments often incorporate clips from earlier segments, mostly as background to the featured acts. The speed of the video clips match the... Read all

Director
- Jonas Mekas

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

315

YOUR RATING

Director
- Jonas Mekas

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos

Featured review

1/10

Like watching a home movie shot by a kid pumped full of Red Bulls and Crack!

I cannot blame the filmmaker, Jonas Mekas, too much for this one. After all, I DID rent the DVD "American Avant Garde Film: Disc 1" from Netflix...so I did have an idea that the film might be on the weird side! However, I can tolerate and enjoy some avant garde films--just not this one. That's because it's downright painful to watch and I detect no hint of artistry or greatness about it. Sure, it could just be because I am an artless boob, but I can't see how any sane person could appreciate this one. It was filmed at three different performances of the circus in the 1960s. However, it does NOT look like a documentary or even a home movie. Mekas deliberately chose to move the camera about VERY rapidly and in a jerky manner--making the film hard to enjoy on any level. It was, to me, like torture--and very hard on the eyes. And, to make it worse, it was accompanied by VERY annoying banjo music!! A real chore to watch.