Post 9. Nostalgia

The dictionary’s definition of nostalgia is ‘the sentimental longing or affection for the past and the evocation of feelings.’ In this way, Frampton’s film ‘Nostalgia’ is a visual example of nostalgia, and in this specific case, through recorded images of the past. Frampton himself once declared that ‘the whole history of art is no more than a massive footnote in the history of film’ and I believe this to be true. Nostalgia’s poetic and melancholic peering into the past is haunting, especially in the manner in which he describes the time, place, and personal memory attached to the subject of the image or similarly the purpose for which it was taken. The idea of the fragility of time is thus visually played upon as Frampton’s speech is overtaken by the physical destruction of the image as it is burnt and left to remain as mere ashes. The solemnity and defining termination of this act can be construed as a comment on the finality of an event, one that as the passage of time goes on, re-generates as a definitive image of nostalgia itself. In this way, as Frampton describes the images, ones that have a specific and personal meaning to him, we as an audience are brought into the acute nostalgia by the act of the emotion mirroring that of the work itself. And as we watch fervently, taking in every detail of the image burning away, as we know it’s very existence is limited.