A Movie as prototype database narrative

Bruce Conner's avant-garde classic A Movie was a film far ahead of its time and it has rarely been surpassed within the still vibrant field of experimental compilation filmmaking. Conner's use of non-commercial, industrial and educational archival materials inspired multiple generations of makers, including the once ubiquitous post-modern MTV kitsch music video remixes and may have even provided part of the inspiration to Rick Prelinger to create his archive that is now part of the permanent collection at the Library of Congress. Conner's film may also be understood as an example of "database narrative" in which the process of selection and combination is exposed in order to trigger narrative associations via horizontal and vertical montage. The highly mutable potential meaning-making via image-image and sound-image juxtapositions is foregrounded, with special emphasis on the overdetermining impact of music in telegraphing the intended emotional resonance of an edited sequence.