Cruces (Maximilien Luc Proctor, 2023) (Patreon)

BY REQUEST: Florian Weigl

The usual disclaimers apply. Max and I are friends, and have worked together on some writing projects. But another disclaimer might be in order here. MLP is astoundingly prolific, and I have not even begun to delve into his ever-growing body of work. At this point I have seen four of his films, and although there are commonalities, of course, they all struck me as very different from each other. Florian informs me that Cruces is one of the first films MLP has made with a new 16mm Bolex, and so this in itself is a point of interest. Max's interest in light and space finds a new kind of articulation here, in a number of ways.

First of all, it goes without saying that the quality of light captured by 16mm celluloid is distinct, and it seems fitting somehow that Max chose to make a film in Las Cruces, NM, in and around his mother's home. In grappling with a relatively new medium, Max has gone somewhere very familiar to him. And although a great deal of Cruces involves moving around and investigating the interface between camera and landscape, it's fairly obvious that Max understands this space and is "playing" it with his new instrument.

In particular, the handheld camerawork (a recurring element in MLP's work) has a particular heft to it. You can feel Max moving the camera through space, in his flattening swish pans as well as his tendency to "verticalize" the landscape by moving the camera up and down. One senses that this is an "experimental film" in the strictest sense, with Max trying lots of cinematographic approaches in order to see what they yield in the final film. And while I am not at all certain that Max edited Cruces in-camera, the film does have a sort of sketch-pad quality, with numerous ideas quickly replacing each other.

If there is anything holding Cruces back, it is this somewhat unclear organization. Max moves from landscape to portrait, exterior to interior, abstraction to (relative) realism, and back again. This stop-and-start aspect to Cruces is interesting, but it does mean that, in terms of rhythm and overall shape, the film can never really build a full head of steam. This also means that certain parts of it, like the painterly treatment of the New Mexico desert and the Brakhage-like prismatic abstraction (seen above), stand out from the film, making other parts of it seem less dazzling than they might be in another context.

Having said all that, very few "first films" are as accomplished as Cruces, because of course Max has been developing his aesthetic for years with digital tools. It seems like nitpicking to suggest that, having only just acquired a Bolex, he needs to spring for a Steenbeck. But 16mm entails different editing strategies, in part because of the depth and vividness of its images. Even if, in some small way, Cruces feels "unfinished," it is no less striking because of it.