'The road' has been a vital trope of American (and indeed global) cinema and literature since steam trains pushed us further into new frontiers. Countless films have used the backdrop of the road as an erasure, the visualisation of freedom and as a kinetic and narrative impetus. Station To Station is no different.
Visual artist and director Doug Aitken's latest offering sits somewhere between narrative cinema, artwork and documentary. The result is a tantalising montage of vignettes — 62 one-minute films, each with different characters, artists, creators, musicians and stories. "62 one-minute films?" you ask. "Isn't that a bit jarring?" Yet, somehow this grouping of seemingly random films without a true chronology affords viewers an engaging ride, unified, as it is, by the sights and sounds of the road as seen from the train window.
Aitken's film is a document of 24 days spent travelling from the east coast of America to the west, collecting artists, staging happenings and acting as inspiration for a litany of alternative darlings (Patti Smith, Cat Power and Giorgio Moroder among them). It's also a cornucopia of ideas, stories and words, in keeping with Kerouac's On The Road and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider.
The motion of the train, coupled with the tapestry of scintillating images, makes for a powerful trip into a world of ephemera, a feast of alternative Americana that leaves you wanting more.
