Winter in Armenia: shepherds slide perilously down a snow-covered mountain, cradling their fleecy charges. This kind of chivalry inhabits The Seasons, a breathtaking depiction of the hardships and vigor of rural life, set, not incongruously, to Vivaldi. It is one of many cinematic poems by Arthur Peleshian, a master of montage who is a true descendant of Vertov and Eisenstein (and contemporary of Bruce Conner). Yet his "distance montage," the counterpoint over time of images and sounds, effects rhythms and moods his predecessors never attempted. We builds toward "a cardiogram of the national soul and character" of Peleshian's native Armenia. The Beginning depicts the crowd as herd, in all its surprising potential. Peleshian chronicles the way man, even at his most urban, unconsciously imitates nature's patterns. Recommended for anyone who has ever edited a film, wondered why we exist, read Tolstoy, counted sheep. (JB)