Surrealism

 

 Surrealism has been easily the most interesting genre of film our class has studied yet.  It includes some of the most nonsensical scenes that could ever make it on camera...but even in it's purposeful nonsense, potent thoughts can be aroused. 

"The Seashell and the Clergyman" was a very odd film by Germaine Dulac.  It seemed to include a man going through extreme sexual frustration while trying to chase down a girl.  She was protected by some sort of military man who then becomes a priest.  Eventually the sexually frustrated man attempts to kill the military man/priest by both strangling him and throwing him off a cliff. 

I believe it had something to do with wanting a woman who was already in a relationship that you could have no control over.  The woman constantly running from the pent up man stuck her tongue out at him in points of the film, and in one scene a pounding of fists on the table seemed almost masterbatory.

There were some new camera techniques that I haven't seen before in our films such as some cross fading used throw a street chase scene and the illusion of the priest's head splitting in two.

The most intriguing part of the "The Seashell and the Clergyman" was the combination of scenes where in the beginning of the films, the frustrated man fills glass beakers with a fluid, only to break them.  Then, the last scene of the movie has him lifting the plate he was using to fill the beakers to his own mouth.  Was he going to smash himself next?  Suicide resulting from his failure in securing his girl?  It's quite a bit to digest.

Un Chien Andelou by Dali and Bunuel was also cool but mostly just because of its strangeness.  I didn't pick up any message really....except for some visual connections  But man, that eye slice!

Abstract Before Breakfast.

The films that encompassed early animation that have been viewed in class are certainly still not carrying obvious messages. However, you can see the advances in technique as we continue to march onward through the genres in films beginnings.

Symphonie Diagonale looked like a neon light that would flash over a bar somewhere in outer space. Shapes constantly moving back and forth, blinking at you in constant motion. I enjoyed the look of this film more so than Rhythmus 21, which just included square shapes evolving into more square shapes.

Had to love Ghost's For Breakfast because it's finally a film that seemed to make any kind of sense in a broad scale, even though it still wasn't Everybody Loves Raymond. It had some nice camera uses such as sideways angles that went along well with the lighthearted scenes of the "ghosts" running around causing trouble. It still had a very artistic feel to it though and incorporated shapes and some of the first scenes of slow motion, both forward and reversed I can remember.



The times are changing.

First to Fight - Dada and the Avante Garde

The early Avant Garde films that we were exposed to in week 3 seemed to get mixed reviews in class and that's being generous. It appeared to me as though most of my classmates felt that the filmmakers in the Dada period weren't making much sense or lead to any kind of point with their work. I can understand that point of view as it's hard to digest watching something that doesn't really have a dead set story, as most of us are used to thanks to modern cinema.

The film that I could get a grip on the most of everything that was shown was easily Leger's "Ballet Mecanique." The film both showed clips of many different mechanical mechanisms such as pistons pumping to go along with shots of people smiling, frowning and walking up and down stairs.

I thought the film was trying to portray the relationship between the movements and functions of both anatomy and machine. Two instances specifically come to mind in developing the consistencies between both.

The first is a silver ball of some sort swinging back and forth in a repetitive motion. Soon after that footage was a woman smiling and frowning in the same back and forth fashion as the silver ball.

The next images that related to each other were shots of a piston pumping up and down. Then a woman was shown walking up a flight of stairs in repeat. If you think about the way a leg works, it follows the same pattern of a piston. up and down. They can certainly be related in form.

The Surrealists/Dadaists/Cubists definitely had some interesting perspectives on Art and Film, but it is certainly hard to get a read on what they are trying to say. But I guess that could be the point, right Marcel?

Early Animation and Billy Corgan's Head

This past week in class we were shown early forms of animation after a brief discussion regarding Edison and caricaturists. Edison, being more inventor than artist, didn't really pursue film outside of the basic development of the form. He may be considered a forefather of film, but didn't really try to expand its boundaries as Emile Cohl, one of the early caricaturists and the father of animated cartoons.

Watching Gertie the Dinosaur gave a few different thoughts. It was obviously dated and would be considered a dinosaur of a cartoon in more ways than one. While not very exciting to watch in modern times, It must have been riveting to first get a taste of the way drawings could be photographed and a dialogue could be developed with a human off camera.

Melies's "A Trip to the Moon" was easily the high point of the day for me. His sets were really impressive, especially because he painted and developed the sets himself. I definitely do recall the Smashing Pumpkins video that was inspired by this film. I was really happy to get a chance to see the film, after hearing about it before. I'm really looking forward to reading up on Melies work as our class progresses.

One last thing: Separated at birth?

First entry

walken!