“An anarchist who studies analytical philosophy, Manuel DeLanda makes aggressive, wild movies that simultaneously leap all over the place and stand absolutely still. In Incontinence: A Diarrhetic Flow of Mismatches (1978, 18 mins), the editing strategies parallel the personal relationships depicted, and a mismatched cut is literally only the other side of a mismatched couple. Rarely have sound, image and the spatio-temporal coordinates of narrative illusion been buffeted about so vigorously. Raw Nerves: A Lacanian Thriller (1980, 28 mins) has been described by its maker as ‘my personal testament against psychoanalysis,' and in fact, though few unalerted spectators would be likely to guess it without prompting, a polemical rethinking of the Oedipus complex does lie behind the film's parodic noir structure and private-eye plot.
“The episodic plot of Scott B and Beth B's The Trap Door (1980, 70 mins, Super-8), a string of nightmarish sexual and/or professional encounters, concerns Jeremy Jones (John Ahearn), a young hero who's looking for a job. The closeted, layered sense of perspective created by The Bs with ingenious studio approximations of a drive-in theater and a row of escalators is as elegantly claustrophobic as anything in their work. And in one voluptuous two-shot near the end--Dr. Shrinkelstein (the legendary Jack Smith) in semidrag, fruitlessly trying to hypnotize the hapless hero with a Maria Montez medallion--the thick, furry and fuzzy textures become practically Sternbergian.” Jonathan Rosenbaum (adapted from “Film: The Front Line 1983,” to be published this summer by Arden Press)