In Conditions of Illusion what is not achieved is the stabilisation of repoduction into the terms of a representation: effectively, the materials of reproduction that are engaged by the film are not stablisied into a representation (the photograph given precisely as holdable moment, why else a photograph if not for that?)
"The distinction between reproduction and representation is important though difficult. In a sense all the films of yours that I have seen are full of the materials of reproduction held off of - not fixed into - representation. Duration and narrative thus come apart, narrative being exactly fixing, stabilisation. In the phrase 'reproduction of reality' reality itself means a specific set of reproduced reproducible representations, positions, stabilities, clarities. Representation is a series of positions for the specatator to a certain clarity of position and meaning. In Conditions of Illusion nothing is held into a representation."
Stephen Heath in conversation with Peter Gidal, Cambridge Tapes on Narrative, 1978.
Stills from Condition of Illusion
