Collection

Hapax Legomena 7-Part Series

7 titles · in release order

Hapax Legomena (1971-1972), whose title Frampton translated as “things said once,” turned out, unfortunately, to be a hapax legomenon within Frampton’s filmography, as it is the only multi-part, interlocking (but separable), set of films that he completed

Hapax Legomena I: (nostalgia)Hapax Legomena I: (nostalgia) · 1971
Hapax Legomena I: (nostalgia)
6.61971
MovieDrama
Michael Snow narrates a series of Hollis Frampton's photographs (speaking as Frampton, in the first person)—as each picture catches fire on a hot plate.
Hapax Legomena III: Critical MassHapax Legomena III: Critical Mass · 1971
Hapax Legomena III: Critical Mass
6.21971
MovieDrama
A man and a woman have been living together for six months. After disappearing for two days, the man returns and acts as if nothing has happened, refusing to say where he was.
Hapax Legomena IV: Travelling MatteHapax Legomena IV: Travelling Matte · 1971
Hapax Legomena IV: Travelling Matte
6.41971
Movie
“This film metaphors an entire human life: birth, sex, death – the framing device is the fingers and palm of the maker’s hand, wherein others only attempt to read the future.” – Stan Brakhage
Hapax Legomena II: Poetic JusticeHapax Legomena II: Poetic Justice · 1972
Hapax Legomena II: Poetic Justice
5.21972
MovieRomanceDocumentary
Poetic Justice presents the viewer with an ordinary domestic scene: a stack of papers, a cup of coffee, and a potted cactus on a table. The sheets of paper compose a script that provides handwritten, frame-by-frame instructions for a film that unfolds only in the mind of the viewer.
Hapax Legomena V: Ordinary MatterHapax Legomena V: Ordinary Matter · 1972
Hapax Legomena V: Ordinary Matter
6.61972
Movie
"A vision of a journey, during which the eye of the mind drives headlong through Salisbury Cloister (a monument to enclosure), Brooklyn Bridge (a monument to connection), Stonehenge (a monument to the intercourse between consciousness and LIGHT)... visiting along the way diverse meadows, barns, waters where I now live; and ending in the remembered cornfields of my childhood. The soundtrack annexes, as mantram, the Wade-Giles syllabary of the Chinese language." (H.F.)
Hapax Legomena VI: Remote ControlHapax Legomena VI: Remote Control · 1972
Hapax Legomena VI: Remote Control
7.91972
Movie
“A ‘baroque’ summary of film’s historic internal conflicts, chiefly those between narrative and metric/plastic montage; and between illusionist and graphic space.” – HF
Hapax Legomena VII: Special EffectsHapax Legomena VII: Special Effects · 1972
Hapax Legomena VII: Special Effects
7.81972
Movie
“The frame itself, which divides what is present to consciousness from what is absolutely elsewhere, is tempered here by the breath, tremor, heartbeat of the perceiver. People this given space, if you will, with images of your own devising.” – HF