The Philosophers Stone (Harmon)

The Philosopher's Stone 2008 is a feature length experimental film by occult filmmaker Raymond Salvatore Harmon. It is Harmon's first feature length narrative film. Its plot melds the story of Faust with the biographical story of Dr.Albert Hofmann's accidental discovery of the hallucinogen [...].

Harmon conceptualized the film as an homage to early German expressionist cinema. For the first 25 minutes of the film it is black and white, with a brief scene using colorization during Fausstman's initial exposure to a small amount of the liquid he obtains from Mephistopheles.

Once Fausstman ingests the entire bottle he slowly starts to hallucinate and the film becomes filled with color. By the 35 minute mark the film has lost any plot line and is visually more akin to Harmon's short abstract works. Dense abstract colorization's fill the screen for more than 20 minutes, only dissolving back to the black and white imagery (and Fausstman plot) for the last 8 minutes of the film.

Plot

The Philosopher's Stone tells the story of Jacob Fausstman (Jacob Andrew Myers), a scientist and early alchemist who searches for the key to curing man of the disease of death. In his frustration Jacob stumbles onto another path to achieve his goals. Turning to the dark arts Jacob conjures the demon Mephistopheles (Isobel Julianna Harmon) and is given the key to eternal life (a small glass vial filled with liquid).

After a small exposure to the liquid Fausstman goes home and has subtle color hallucinations which inspire him to return to his laboratory and consume the entire vial of liquid in a rather mad scientist like act. Thinking he has been tricked because he does not feel any immediate results he leaves the lab in disgust, riding his bike home.

On his bike journey The Effects of the liquid take hold and his sense of the real dissolves into abstract color and form. Within the shifting abstractions the viewer can make out all of the previous scenes of the film in a complex layering technique Harmon refers to as compositing.

After an extended period of colorized hallucinations Fausstman comes to a river, whose familiar form and sounds help him to overcome his mental state. After falling asleep under a tree beside the river Faustmann wakes and is left wondering if his experiences were 'real' or if the visions he has had were just hallucinations or dreams.

Trivia

Harmon released this film directly as an internet download over his frustration concerning the lack of good distribution in the experimental cinema world.

The soundtrack for the Philosopher's Stone is credited to a band called Bog. Bog's members are actually Harmon, actor Myers and visual effects person Shawn Wernette.