The lost short film that influenced ESB's Cave (Black Angel - Roger Christian)

I think this film is interesting.

It's interesting because Christian has clearly taken a leaf from Lucas' wheel house in his making of this film.
He mentions being influenced heavily by Andrei Tarkovsky at the time, and that makes a lot of sense.
Lucas was also heavily impacted by Tarkovsky as well - most of the Movie Brats community were.

But the nature of the film's treatment is interesting. While the shooting and setups are very different from Lucas' way of treating film, the nature of telling a story through cinema as an artist is definitely kin to Lucas.

It's clear to me that we're looking at the work of someone smack in the middle of being surrounded by Lucas' conversations on approaching the creation of film as an artist. Which, of course he was, being the Set Decorator on Star Wars, and continuing his work with Lucas over the years.

For example, the film borrows a naughty leaf out of Lucas' little handbook and doesn't bother with opening credits at all - instead jumping straight into the film.

Further, it relies heavily on implied and subjective meaning. Leaning heavily upon cultural expression for the tangibility of the articulation rather than reaching out for more explicit preservations of the story.
Painting an image of an idea more than telling the details of a story.

It's really interesting to see Lucas' ideas (e.g. thoughts and commentaries on other filmmakers and the art of film) lensed through someone else (i.e. reflected in thought) - as it is very rare to see anyone take a swing at any of Lucas' interests.

I know it's been around before, but I think it's worth preserving and resurfacing.
It's a very interesting film, and it also had a direct influence upon ESB in a small, but now rather famous, scene.

Cheers,
Jayson