Bruges La Morte (1976) An image of his dead wife appears to the hero. In 1963 Ronald Chase was living and painting in Barrytown, NY in the Hudson Valley. One weekend, a Turkish actress was left as a houseguest, and accompanied by two friends, they explored the neighboring sights. One was a bizarre landscape of mirrors placed outdoors against trees, inhabited by a hermit artist who had burrowed his home in a series of tunnels under the tree trunks. Chase spent time photographing the actress, with himself, and his two friends. What emerged from these photos was a premise for his first film. One friend had a camera and film stock, the others served as actors, volunteers appeared for weekends, and thus the "underground" film movement found an additional film maker. When Chase moved to San Francisco in '64, he was asked to make a dance film for Elizabeth Harris (one of many collaborations) The Covenant, and countined producing short films that ran paralell to his work in Opera. These productions eventually led to the features, LULU, (shot in the elephant rooms of the San Francisco Zoo) and BRUGES-LA-MORTE, filmed on location in Belgium.