Lemon (1969) Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Lemon
Year: 1969
Director: Hollis Frampton
Country: US
Language: N/A

Hollis Frampton has said the following about his 7 minute film, “As a voluptuous lemon is devoured by the same light that reveals it, its image passes from the spatial rhetoric of illusion into the spatial grammar of the graphic arts.” Yeah, sure buddy. Lemon is a short picture featuring...a lemon. Not like a cute Disney Pixar animated lemon, it's literally just a lemon sitting still. Watch some film snob tell you otherwise though. "It's a metaphor for the Russian Revolution!"

Plot synopsis: It's a lemon, just sitting there. 

"Maybe it's a metaphor for the loss of innocence during the Russia/United States cold war!" Don't be silly, it's a lemon. Hollis Frampton's short is minimalist, and silent in nature. It is an attempt at examining the nature of vision, illusion, spatiality, and film. As the light gradually illuminates the lemon, its distinctive shape appears in a three-dimensional spatial form. As the light recedes, the lemon loses its spatiality 

"Maybe it's a metaphor for Germany's loss of humanity during World War Two!" Don't be silly, it's a lemon. Though I'll admit, it does examine how light and space can change how we perceive a character. In certain light the lemon does look mischievous and grotesque. In other lighting it looks like the protagonist Gotham needs! 

Is there a good way to rate this avante garde film, which is just about a lemon under lighting? I guess if Frampton sought out to show that lighting is an essential tool in the arsenal of a film-maker then he did a good job. As far as movies about a lemon doing nothing goes, this is pretty good.