Tongues

Although another piece by the same author as Savage/Love (Sam Shepard), Tongues uses even more cinematic special effects, compressing and expanding the image vertically or horizontally. It is like a precursor to the Performance Art of Laurie Anderson, especially when an image is altered to evoke death. (For instance, years later, Anderson would used advanced technology to slowly transform a live image of herself into a ‘devil’ to mirror as song as she sings it.)

Watching Tongues feels like witnessing the faltering steps of an earlier pioneer. Which, of course, it is. The theme includes a dying man delivering his own last rites.