| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (152 min.) : flv file, sound |
| Contents |
Ballet mécanique / Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy -- Anémic cinéma / Rrose Sélavy -- Looney lens : anamorphic people / Al Brick -- Out of the melting pot / creators unknown -- H₂O / Ralph Steiner -- Surf and seaweed / Ralph Steiner -- Vorkapich montage sequences. The Furies ; Legacy of a Hollywood extra ; Skyline dance ; Money machine ; Prohibition ; The firefly (Vorkapich edit) ; The firefly (MGM release version) ; Maytime -- Light and abstraction / Slavko Vorkapich -- So this is Paris / Ernst Lubitsch -- Light rhythms / Francis Bruguière -- Une nuit sur le Mont Chauve (Night on Bald Mountain) / Alexandre Alexeleff, Claire Parker -- Rhythm in light / Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth, Melville Webber -- Synchrony no. 2 / Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth -- Parabola / Rutherford Boyd, Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth -- Footlight parade "By a waterfall" / Busby Berkeley -- Glens Fall sequence / Douglass Crockwell -- Simple destiny abstractions / Douglass Crockwell -- Abstract movies / George Lorris -- Scherzo / Norman McLaren -- Composition no. 1 : Themis / Dwinell Grant -- Composition no. 2 : Contrathemis / Dwinell Grant -- 1941 / Francis Lee -- Moods of the sea / Slavko Vorkapich, John Hoffman |
| Summary |
Light Rhythms is part of the film retrospective Unseen Cinema that explores long-forgotten American experimental cinema. The rhythmic elements of cinema are explored by artists and filmmakers fascinated in the abstract qualities of light. The American authors of avant-garde classics Ballet mécanique (1923-24), Anémic cinéma (1926), and Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (1934) are finally acknowledged for their seminal artistic achievements made in Europe. Pioneer abstract films by Ralph Steiner, Mary Ellen Bute, Douglass Crockwell, Dwinnell Grant, and George Morris are compared and contrasted with Hollywood montages created by Ernst Lubitsch and Slavko Vorkapich. For the first time on video, composer George Antheil's original 1924 score accompanies Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy's film Ballet mécanique, a truly avant-garde cacophony of image and sound. 26 FILMS BY FEATURED DIRECTORS: Alexander Alexeieff, Oswell Blakeston, Rutherford Boyd, Al Brick, Francis Bruguière, Mary Ellen Bute, Douglass Crockwell, Marcel Duchamp, W.J. Ganz Studio, Dwinell Grant, John Hoffman, Francis Lee, Fernand Léger, Looney Lens, Ernst Lubitsch, George Morris, Dudley Murphy, Ted Nemeth, Claire Parker, Rrose Selavy, Ralph Steiner, Slavko Vorkapich, Melville Webber. Curated by Bruce Posner and produced by David Shepard. "Rich with inventive and curious experiments."--LA Weekly. "There's a certain American impulse to be cherished here - irascible, restless, and vibrant. The sense of possibility, of play, of discovering the possibilities of the form, is palpable in Unseen Cinema." - City Pages, Twin Cities. Made possible in part by Cineric, Inc., Eastman Kodak Company, Film Preservation Associates |
| Notes |
Title from title frames |
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Playlist |
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In Process Record |
| Performer |
Alice Prin, Katherine Hawley Murphy, Dudley Murphy |
| Event |
Originally produced by Filmmakers Showcase in 1924 |
| Notes |
Silent |
| Subject |
Motion pictures -- United States -- History
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Experimental films -- United States -- History
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Surrealism in motion pictures.
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Dance in motion pictures, television, etc.
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Arts -- Experimental methods.
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Motion pictures.
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Dance in motion pictures, television, etc.
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Arts -- Experimental methods.
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Experimental films.
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Surrealism in motion pictures.
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Motion pictures.
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United States.
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| Genre/Form |
History.
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Documentary films.
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Documentary films.
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Documentaires.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Léger, Fernand, 1881-1955.
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Murphy, Dudley, 1897-1968.
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Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968.
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Brick, Al
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Steiner, Ralph, 1899-1986.
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Vorkapich, Slavko
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Lubitsch, Ernst, 1892-1947.
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Bruguière, Francis Joseph
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Alexeleff, Alexandre
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Parker, Claire, 1906-1981.
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Bute, Mary Ellen
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Nemeth, Ted, 1911-1986.
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Webber, Melville
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Boyd, Rutherford, 1884-1951.
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Berkeley, Busby, 1895-1976.
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Crockwell, Douglass
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Lorris, George
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McLaren, Norman, 1914-1987.
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Grant, Dwinell, 1912-1991.
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Lee, Francis, 1913-1998.
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Hoffman, John
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Man Ray, 1890-1976.
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Anthology Film Archives.
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Filmmakers Showcase (Firm),
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Kanopy (Firm)
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