:
Antonin Artaud
:
Marcel Duchamp,
Fernand Léger,
Germaine Dulac,
more...
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Risqué Cinema/CAV Entertainment
: France, Short Films, Silent, Experimental/Avant-Garde
: 65 min.
: English
: French
see additional details...
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An astounding collection of short films from a time when Europe's foremost artists considered cinema one of the most intriguing new media with which to experiment and play:
- Entr'acte (1924). In his superb biography of Marcel Duchamp, Calvin Tomkins describes the evening of the premiere in Paris of the ballet Relâche. In short, the critics hated it but the audience had a marvellous time: "For audiences and critics alike, though, the real hit of the evening was the twenty-two-minute film called Entracte, which was shown during the entracte (intermission). It is hard to know who was primarily responsible for this Dadaist gem. [Frances] Picabia, with untypical modesty, said later that he had given René Clair 'a little scenario of nothing at all; he made it a masterpiece.'" In the most famous sequence, Duchamp and Man Ray play chess until a blast of water sweeps the pieces from the board. There are chases and dancers and it's all very delightful.
- La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman, 1924). Radical feminist Germaine Dulac (who was also the second woman to direct a film in the history of French cinema) directs this 28-minute film based on a scenario by Antonin Artaud. Here's a bit of what Artaud had to say about what he was after: "The apparition seems to terrify the clergyman. He lets the breast-plate fall and it gives off an enormous flame in breaking. Then, as if he were seized by a feeling of sudden bashfulness, he gathers his clothes to him. But as he grabs the skirts of his cassock to draw them around his thighs, these skirt-tails seem to stretch out, forming an endless road into the night. The clergyman and the woman run desperately through the night..."
- Ballet Mecanique (1924). David Curtis, in his history, Experimental Cinema: A Fifty-Year Evolution (Curtis wrote it in 1971; fortunately, the evolution rolls on), decribes the only film Fernand Léger ever made as "the first completely abstract film to be photographed as opposed to the drawn abstractions of [Hans] Richter and [Viking] Eggeling)." Léger's use of loops "probably ranks as the first completely conscious recognition of the 'unit of cinema' to be recorded on film. At last, film has become the subject of film."
- Anemic Cinema (various versions were made in 1920, 1923 and, finally, in 1926). Essentially a film by Duchamp with help from Man Ray. Once again, Tomkins: "Duchamp used the initial payment on his inheritance to make a film and to go into the art business. The film, shot in Man Ray's studio with the help of cinematographer Marc Allégret, was a seven-minute animation of nine punning phrases by Rrose Sélavy. These had been pasted, letter by letter, in a spiral pattern on round black discs that were then glued to phonograph records; the slowly revolving texts alternate with shots of Duchamp's Discs Bearing Spirals, ten abstract designs whose turning makes them appear to move backward and forward in an erotic rhythm. The little film, which Duchamp called Anemic Cinema, had its premiere that August at a private screening room in Paris."
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| I do agree with poor quality but beggers can't be choosers
by goodcyrus
April 2, 2006 - 12:07 AM PST
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| The quality was poor and the two mentioned ca be found elsewhere (Avant Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s (2005)), but avante-garde films are so difficult to find (even on greencine) that I am happy to find anything i can. |
| 50/50 content, poor production
by norskog
November 22, 2005 - 9:41 PM PST
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1 out of 2 members found this review helpful
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| The Entr'acte print was terrible; I've seen much better ones. The same with Ballet Mechanique. The other two I had not seen and were fairly clean. Also, no extras; there's a huge history to this stuff that I'd love to see explored by the film geeks. Such did not produce this title. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.40)
30 Votes
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