experimental cinema & avant-garde (shorts) - 40's
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- DirectorJean PainlevéStarsMax SchreckA short look at the vampire bat sucking blood from a guinea pig.
- DirectorJean PainlevéIn a freshwater pond, various aquatic creatures try to eat others in order to avoid being eaten themselves.
- DirectorJean EpsteinIn a village in Brittany, a young maid and an old woman are spinning while the wind blows threateningly outdoors. In spite of the bad omen, the young maid's boyfriend decides to sail away. Worried, the young maid ask for help to a mysterious old man and his magical crystal ball in order to calm down the rough seas.
- DirectorOskar FischingerThis is the name of some experiments made by Fischinger; it was not completed or released as a finished film. Some of these experiments were edited into the final film called Radio Dynamics.
- DirectorOskar FischingerA short painted film by Oskar Fishchinger which films images to the music of Johann Bach.
- DirectorNorman McLarenFrom the opening credits: "An experimental film (...) made without camera, by drawing directly upon 35 mm film with an ordinary pen and ink." Various abstract shapes interact and transform into one another.
- DirectorNorman McLarenAn experimental film of dots animated by being drawn directly on filmstock.
- DirectorNorman McLarenA film made without a camera, made by painting directly on the film.
- DirectorNorman McLarenIn a drawn-on-film animation, a hen gradually breaks apart into an abstract movement of lines as it dances to a barn dance.
- DirectorNorman McLarenA Valentine's Day greeting to television viewers. "We love our audience" appears in squiggly lettering across the screen. Then a line becomes a heart; a second heart joins in, and the hearts play with each other: morphing into arrows shot through the hearts, lips that kiss, and bows that entwine. A third small heart joins the family. The lines then write, "Will you be our Valentine?"
- DirectorSlavko Vorkapich
- DirectorMary Ellen ButeNorman McLarenTed NemethIt's midnight in a graveyard. The principal characters are spooks, ghosts, bats, bells, and, at the end, the sun. As midnight strikes, 12 spooks appear, then two ghosts. They move to the music's rhythm. Against the black night, they are blue and yellow. Bats appear as does a xylophone of bones. Mist rises, spooks swirl. A bell tolls. The sky turns light blue, the ghosts' dance slows. Then black night returns bringing intimations of frenzy. Bones play snare drums; spooks peek out of square graves. Scary faces appear. Frenetic movement takes over. A rooster crows and all return to earth as the sun's light appears.
- DirectorLen LyeA film made without a camera by painting directly onto the celluloid.
- DirectorMary Ellen ButeTed NemethColorful abstract shapes and lines move exuberantly to the syncopated modernistic piano music of Edwin Gershefsky.
- DirectorDwinell GrantAgainst a background of bluish light, several objects appear: a square, a circle, and a set of rods. As the background color occasionally varies in shade between blue and rose, the objects move around, forming various patterns.
- DirectorGeorge L.K. Morris
- DirectorFrancis LeeIn December, 1941, using music by Stravinsky, this film provides a reaction to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. An egg is smashed by a hammer; red color with white and then blue dominates the frame. Blue paint runs; small bulbs float. The dark colors spread. White, red, blue, and black dominate the frame. Then comes fire. The bulbs burn and break. A broken bulb's filaments are exposed.
- DirectorJohn HoffmanSlavko VorkapichA recently unearthed experimental documentary of the crashing sea set to Mendelssohn's "Fingal's Cave." An example of the filmmakers' "new cinema" theory which held that film should be more like music than literature. This film is based solely on its arrangement of images.
- DirectorPaul BurnfordStarsJohn NesbittA look at how the weather bureau tries to warn farmers and businessmen about approaching large storms. Although some precautions can be taken to lessen their impact, storms have to run their course, and there is really not much we can do about them.
- DirectorNorman McLarenAn illustration of a traditional French Canadian song in the form of progressing cutouts and still pictures.
- DirectorMaya DerenStarsJohn CageMaya DerenAlexander HammidSilently, a woman wakes on a beach as the tides go in reverse. Her dreamscape unfolds as she tries to locate a chess piece traveling from the beach to a party to a country road and then back.
- DirectorMaya DerenStarsChao Li ChiThe setting with the low walls and river views is located in a private area of The Cloisters museum.
- DirectorMaya DerenAlexander HammidStarsMaya DerenAlexander HammidA woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
- DirectorKenneth AngerStarsKenneth AngerGordon GrayBill SeltzerA dissatisfied dreamer awakes, goes out in the night seeking a 'light' and is drawn through the needle's eye. A dream of a dream, he returns to bed less empty than before.
- DirectorKenneth AngerStarsYvonne MarquisA soundtrack plays folk rock as a woman prepares, at noon, to take her Borzois for a walk. She goes through her dresses, all 1920s style flapper gowns, holding them one at a time, shaking them as if they are dancing. She picks one - in puce. She puts it on, delighted, adds perfume, languishes on a chaise for a few minutes, then goes for her walk. It all has a 20s feel.
- DirectorDavid BradleyStarsDavid BradleyMrs. Herbert HydeReny Kidd
- DirectorFrank Stauffacher
- DirectorChristopher YoungDifferent objects filmed in different surroundings.
- DirectorCurtis HarringtonStarsCurtis HarringtonA man seeks to find himself by exploring his sexuality.
- DirectorCurtis HarringtonStarsIsabel HarringtonRaymond S. HarringtonA woman sits knitting on the porch of her home when a man appears and takes the knitting from her.
- DirectorHarry SmithAn experimental film from artist Harry Smith and part of his Number series of various animated scenes.
- DirectorHarry SmithAn experimental film from artist Harry Smith and part of his Number series of various animated scenes.
- DirectorJohn Whitney Sr.James WhitneyAn experimental computer animation film series from John Whitney Sr.
- DirectorJohn Whitney Sr.James WhitneyAn experimental computer animation film series from John Whitney Sr.
- DirectorJames Whitney
- DirectorMaya DerenStarsRita ChristianiMaya DerenAnaïs NinAn experiment with editing techniques that distort space and time in order to further contextualize an image.
- DirectorMaya DerenStarsMarcel DuchampPajorita MattaThe surrealist film shows repetitive imagery involving a string fashioned in a bizarre, almost spiderweb-like pattern over the hands of several individuals, most notably an unnamed young woman and an elderly gentleman.
- DirectorAlexander HammidMaya DerenTwo cats have a litter of 5 kittens and then nurse, teach and play with them.
- DirectorJames BroughtonSidney PetersonStarsBeatrix PerryHarry HonigJoyce M. GearyA soundless mix of story fragments and images. Initially, images of death, a man with a guitar, a soirée. Some images are surreal: an older woman eats a leaf; a headless man pours a cocktail into his body. A woman in white walks toward a building, isolated and in ruins, where a man waits. Then more images, some in reflections, some distorted, many in close-ups: women's feet in high heels, two bare feet at play, a snail, a knife, a mask, a woman mugging next to it. Women provocatively dance. A woman's face, staring without affect, rises partially out of water. Now wearing a dark jacket, the woman in white runs as if for her life. Is death at hand, or just images?
- DirectorMarie MenkenA voice occasionally says a word or two: "on the sidewalk" or "lithium" or a woman's name. A hand-held camera frames parts of sculptures, or moves across their surfaces, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, almost always in close-up. The soundtrack, in addition to the voice, is discordant music. Light and shadows are paramount. Sometimes the camera repeats up and down movements; once, a set of jump cuts brings an object closer. The music can be shrill in contrast to the sculptures. Almost entirely of wood, they are the work of Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988): abstract, usually smooth and rounded, but not always.
- DirectorWillard MaasStarsGeorge BarkerWillard MaasMarie MenkenA quotation from Aristophanes, "The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love," precedes views of a man and a woman's bodies, often in extreme close up. Off-screen, a voice recites fragments of oracular literature and purple prose. We see an eye, an ear, a mouth, a tongue, bits of hair, a hand, the tips of fingers, toes. Occasionally, the frame includes a larger scape of a body: a chest, a back, a breast. Usually the camera is stationery; sometimes, it moves across a body, remaining in close up. They hold hands for one moment. The bodies are without clothes; no genitalia are visible.
- DirectorGösta WernerStarsGunnar BjörnstrandHenrik SchildtYngve NordwallDepicts the suggestive empathy the Old Norse blood sacrifice.
- DirectorJános Dáloky
- DirectorJean MitryAn engine moves from the roundhouse to a track where it couples with several passenger cars. At 2:10 in the afternoon, it starts a trip out of the station through the countryside to its destination. The film consists of a montage of shots, some close up, of the engine and its gears and wheels. With the accompanying ambient sounds and an orchestral score, the emphasis is on the engine's power and speed. Parallel lines of multiple tracks, telephone wires, and trees confirm a careful composition.