“Infinite Film” as Matrix: Hollis Frampton’s Metahistorical Thinking

Abstract

Hollis Frampton published a seminal essay entitled “For a Metahistory of Film: Commonplace Notes and Hypotheses” in 1971. In this essay, Frampton reconstructs the relationship between photography and cinema through the framework of metahistory and presents the radical idea of the “infinite film,” which encompasses all frames that could potentially exist. The purpose of this paper is to reveal that Frampton saw the possibility of filmmaking oriented to the “infinite film,” while correctly grasping the problem of the totality inherent in it. The first section demonstrates how the “infinite film” is presented in the metahistory essay. The second section clarifies that the metahistory of film is justified through its medium-specificity and examines Frampton’s understanding of film by focusing on the term “appearance.” The third section discusses the actuality of the “infinite film.” Finally, I will argue that the difficulties faced by structural film accurately correspond to the impasse of reductionistic procedures made in the metahistory essay and clarify a part of Frampton’s thinking about filmmaking oriented toward the “infinite film.”