Surreal Silents-list some
Rick Levinson
>
> besides Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,can u name some surreal silents?thanks
**********
Dear LALA [if that IS your real name]:
Right off the bat you'll get an argument that CALIGARI represents
German Expressionism, not Dadaism/Surrealism. Both are avant-garde
artistic movements of the early part of this century but Expressionism
represents the frightening subversion of rational objectivity by
subjective states of consciousness overladen with the unbearable freight
of barely repressed desires, dreads and terrors [in other words, it's
very German] while Dadaism/Expressionism represents an act of liberation
from the oppression of linear rational consciousness via the nonlinear,
nonrational products of dream or dream-like subconscious states [in
other words, it's very French].
In a broad, non-technical sense, a lot of films are surreal. SHERLOCK,
JR. is surreal. SH! THE OCTOPUS is surreal. Commercials for Mentos, the
Freshmaker, are surreal. But classic surreal film represents a specific
era and sensibility.
For classic surreal silent/early talkie film, see anything by Man Ray
aka Tristan Tzara aka Manny Rabinovitch:
LE RETOUR A LA RAISON aka RETURN TO REASON ['23]
A QUOI REVENT LES JEUNES FILMS aka WHAT DO YOUNG FILMS DREAM ABOUT?
['24]
EMAK-BAKIA ['26]
L'ETOILE DE MER ['28]
.... or early Rene Clair:
PARIS QUI DORT aka CRAZY RAY ['24]
ENTR'ACTE ['24]
LE VOYAGE IMAGINAIRE ['25]
.......or Dali and Bunuel:
UN CHIEN ANDALOU ['29]
L'AGE D'OR ['30] [some guy on the Internet Movie Database, on the 'post
your comments here' bulletin board feature, wrote a whole frickin' essay
on L'AGE D'OR. Dude: I don't think IMDB wants a doctoral thesis on the
film. 'Thumbs up' would have been just fine].
You'll find all the above-mentioned films in your grocer's dairy case.
Right next to the still-breathing sturgeon with the crucifix where its
genitalia should be and women's breasts for eyes.
Rick Levinson
Constance Kuriyama
LALA (la...@idt.net) writes:
> besides Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,can u name some surreal silents?thanks
Strictly speaking, _Caligari_ is expressionist rather than surreal--but
the distinction is hazy.
The Bunuel/Dali _Andalusian Dog_ (1928) is self-consciously surreal.
Some people extend the term to include silent comedies such as Keaton's
_Balloonatic,_ Chaplin's _One A.M._, and the Laurel and Hardy one where
they put a horse on a piano (title anyone? And is that silent?). If
one applies the term loosely, then any film that involves absurd situations
and fantasy or dream sequences can be considered surrealistic.
Connie K.
--
CC on Hollywood, ca. 1948: "All people think of is opening new restaurants."
RFCSAC627N
>Some people extend the term to include silent comedies such as Keaton's
>_Balloonatic,_ Chaplin's _One A.M._, and the Laurel and Hardy one where
>they put a horse on a piano (title anyone?
WRONG AGAIN (1929)
> And is that silent?).
Yes.
Lloyd Fonvielle
LALA wrote:
> besides Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,can u name some surreal silents?thanks
Well, there's "Sherlock, Jr." -- the greatest of them all . . .
LALA
Melmed Swerloft
good post, but I gotta take issue w/one thing
> For classic surreal silent/early talkie film, see anything by Man Ray
>aka Tristan Tzara
_Totally_ different people. Separate individuals. Man Ray was from NYC,
Tzara was from Romania or some place. He was a kooky little guy who chanted
dada poetry and fell in and out of favor with Andre breton, being kicked out
of Surrealism and later rejoining. I'm 99.999999% positive he isn't Man Ray
(just to cover my as in case I'm not thinking straight). I don't think Tzara
ever made a film, but it's possible...
Book recommendation for all: REVOLUTION OF THE MIND- bio of
Breton/surrealism history
Rick Levinson
*****
Melmed:
You're absolutely right and my apologies.
My confusion lies here: Tristan Tzara did in fact direct one short
film, LE COEUR A BARBE ['30], under the pseudonym 'Man Ray'. BARBE
features Andre Breton, Louis Aragon and other leading French
Surrealists.
So BARBE is as Surreal film-wise as it gets but it was not a Man Ray
[the American-born Surrealist filmmaker/artist Man Ray] film. Tzara just
used the name 'Man Ray' as a lark or some principle of the Dadaist
Manifesto or something.
Those Dadaist pranksters.........
Rick Levinson
TTrocc7007
All this Bunuel, Clair, and Man Ray talk, and me thinking I was alone out here!
Tom Troccoli
Melmed Swerloft
> My confusion lies here: Tristan Tzara did in fact direct one short
>film, LE COEUR A BARBE ['30], under the pseudonym 'Man Ray'. BARBE
>features Andre Breton, Louis Aragon and other leading French
>Surrealists.
>
Heart?
Rick Levinson
The jagged heart? The wild heart? The barbarian heart? It could mean
any one of those things, including The Bearded Heart.
I checked Facets Video
http://www.facets.org/
which specializes in obscure, avant-garde and cult films and couldn't
find a video release containing Tzara's film. So I don't know where or
if it's available on the home entertainment market.
My information on the film comes from the Internet Movie Data Base
you'll find LE COEUR A BARBE listed under a search for Tzara's name.
I've copied the cast and credits from IMDB:
Directed by
more search options Tristan Tzara (as Man Ray)
---------------------
Coeur à barbe...
Overview: Cast (in alphabetical order)
main details Louis Aragón .... Himself
(Surrealist
combined details poet)
Credits: André Breton .... Himself (poet,
full cast and crew founder of
company credits Surrealism)
Awards & Reviews: Paul Eluard .... Himself
(Surrealist
user comments poet)
external reviews Theodore Fraenkel .... Himself
(Surrealist
newsgroup reviews poet)
awards &
nominations Benjamin Peret .... Himself
(Surrealist
user ratings poet)
recommendations Georges .... Himself
(Surrealist
Plot & Quotes: Ribemont-Dessaignes poet)
plot summary Philippe Soupault .... Himself
(Surrealist
plot keywords poet)
Maltin summary
memorable quotes Produced by
Fun Stuff:
trivia Tristan Tzara
goofs
soundtrack listing
Besides the cast listing, there's a summary of the film:
'The young poets, a nucleus of the dada art
movement and pioneers of surrealist poetry, sit in
a corner reading their works and ringing a bell.'
--Bruce Cameron <cam...@petris.com>
If you want to know if the film is available on video, and/or is
available with English subtitles, it might be best to e-buzz Mr.
Cameron.
Rick
Raymond J. Valinoti
Constance Kuriyama wrote in message <7nfd8t$e...@freenet-news.carleton.ca>...
>The Bunuel/Dali _Andalusian Dog_ (1928) is self-consciously surreal.
>
>_Balloonatic,_ Chaplin's _One A.M._, and the Laurel and Hardy one where
The Laurel and Hardy film you're referring to is WRONG AGAIN (1929), which
was a "silent", although since it was released in the period of the film
industry's transition to talkies, it had a musical score.
pre...@my-deja.com
"Melmed Swerloft" <andrew.removetomail<--dim...@nashville.com> wrote:
> >
> > My confusion lies here: Tristan Tzara did in fact direct one short
> >film, LE COEUR A BARBE ['30], under the pseudonym 'Man Ray'. BARBE
> >features Andre Breton, Louis Aragon and other leading French
> >Surrealists.
> >
> Wow. Thanks, I didn't know that. BTW, what does the title mean? The
Bearded Heart?
>
No, THE HEART OF BARBIE. If memory serves, the film details her grueling
ordeal in getting her Malibu Dream House in order before Ken shows up
for their weekly date at the malt shop.
Mike S.
(who once did unspeakable things with Midge)
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
Constance Kuriyama
I knew there was some reason why I wasn't sure--apart from the fact
that it's been awhile since I've seen it. Thanks Richard and Raymond
for filling the blank on the title.
oks...@my-deja.com
user...@interlog.com wrote:
> For classic surreal silent/early talkie film, see anything by
Man Ray
> aka Tristan Tzara aka Manny Rabinovitch:
Tristan Tzara was indeed Romanian while Man Ray whose his real name was
Emmanuel Rudnitzky, was from New York.
Dada got its name in 1916 but the attitudes and activities of the
movement began around 1912. Its esthetic revolved around negativism,
revolt, destruction of all values. It was essentially a protest against
art, literature, morals, society and its spread was inseperable from
WWI. Tristan Tzara said that Dada's beginnings were not the beginnings
of art but of disgust. They softened up with time. I particularly like
Rene Clair's Entr'acte (1924)as Dada at its most enjoyable and frenetic.
By the mid-1920's the movement disolved, and what remained viable in it
was assimilated by the Surrealist movement whose formal beginnings were
marked by the publication of its manifesto in Paris in 1924. The
surrealist sensibility was very cinematic. The surrealists were
film-goers before they were film-makers. They liked to go to see "bad"
films and often went to see American serials to catch some bizarre
chance happening. (They usually liked DeMille but did not care for
Griffith.) One of the things they liked to do was to go to see several
films in one outing, arriving at random times and combining the viewings
into one experience. This process is incorporated into Bunuel's L'Age
d'or which starts as a documentary on scorpions, then goes on as a
narrative film and just as suddenly another narrative begins. Around the
Dada period there were also Impressionist (ex: Jean Epstein's La Belle
Nivernaise, 1923) and Cubist films (ex: Fernand Leger's Ballet
mecanique, 1924) being made. It gets a bit confusing when filmmakers
like Germaine Dulac, one of the important Impressionist filmmakers goes
on to make one of the earliest surrealist films, La Coquille et le
clergyman in 1928. Pure Surrealism as a movement was quite dead by WWII
with only a few ideas being carried over into the 1950's. The films of
Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp tend to be considered at the junction of Dada
and Surrealism but I think that Man Ray at least, extends fully into
Surrealism, particularly with Les Mysteres du chateau du de (1929)
filmed on location at the beautifully stark modern villa owned by the
Vicomte de Noailles who financed Un Chien andalou. And of course, there
are those academics who maintain that there were only two surrealist
films ever made: Un Chien andalou and L'Age d'or. Jean Cocteau's Blood
of a Poet (1932) is not formally considered to be a surrealist film as
Cocteau had not been part of the Surrealist movement nor did he agree
with many of their ideas.
Oksana Dykyj
Melmed Swerloft
Les Mysteres du chateau du de (1929)
>filmed on location at the beautifully stark modern villa owned by the
>Vicomte de Noailles who financed Un Chien andalou
Vicomte de Noailles financed L'Age d'Or. It got him kicked out of a
fraternity.
Someone else financed Un chien Andalou (Bunuel or Dali's relatives)
Beaver Lad
<andrew.removetomail<--dim...@nashville.com> wrote:
=====================
Buñuel's mother. (See My Last Sigh, Buñuel's excellent autobiographical
memoir.) And Un Chien andalou was made in 1929 - NOT 1928.