surrealism in movies
arobie
movement whether through surreal film making technique or surreal content.
Any suggestions on books would be nice as well. Can E-mail me at
Alexis...@Brown.edu. Thanks-Alexis
Fred Maslin
: I need Movies which demonstrate close ties to surrealism as an art
: movement whether through surreal film making technique or surreal content.
: Any suggestions on books would be nice as well. Can E-mail me at
: Alexis...@Brown.edu. Thanks-Alexis
In the forties and early fifties, a number of films directly referenced
surrealist sources. Most often a character is drugged and goes through a
little surrealist episode. A big technique for suspense movies.
The Ministry of Fear, dir. Fritz Lang. The villains used an art gallery
as a front. Check out the doorknob (or peephole, I can't remember) when
the hero goes to investigate.
Murder, My Sweet, dir. Edward Dmytryk. Dick Powell, as Raymond Chandler's
detective, Philip Marlowe, gets locked in a room and drugged for 24 hours.
Great surreal dream sequence!
Spellbound, dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Probably the most famous. The dream
sequence actually uses Dali melting clocks (he might have worked on the
film itself).
Anything by Cocteau or Bunuel, of course.
Hope this helps.
Fred
JJ Meric
I recommend books from our friend Paul Hammond who has been writing a lot on Cinema from the point of view of surrealists :
THE SHADOW AND ITS SHADOW
Surrealist Writings on the cinema
POLYGON Sigma
22 George Square
Edinburgh
he also wrote SEEING IN THE DARK and
A COMPENDIUM OF CINEMAGOING (with Ian Breakwell)
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Also you should get into contact with an active surrealist group in Leeds, UK
They have been running a two month cinema in Bradford
"SURREALIST GO TO THE CINEMA"
in Nov. and December 94
featuring films from Bunuel, Hathaway, Kaplan, Resnais, Murnau (Nosferatu), Terry Gilliam etc...
and Jan Svankmajer
this Tcheck surrealist Jan Svankmajer I especially recommend go and see his amazing animation films like "Alice in Wonderland" and his just released "FAUST" (and a lot others). Some are in video.
Good luck!
any mail please :
Marie-Domin...@LEVFR.SPRINT.COM
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Jean-Jacq...@levfr.sprint.com
Dan L. Whittle
>I need Movies which demonstrate close ties to surrealism as an art
>movement whether through surreal film making technique or surreal content.
Natural Born Killers had some surreal content, but is it art?
andrew w kirkpatrick
>:Natural Born Killers had some surreal content, but is it art?
IMO any blockbuster mega-budget non-stop-action special effects
bonanza w/o any substantial plot is surreal simply by the fact
that it exists. I am learning to appreciate these films looking
at them from multiple perspectives. Get behind the screen and you
will see a very bright light and a very large group of people
looking right at you. Something about 2 hours of senseless violence
that makes me wonder why they blast mellow reggae tunes before and
after the flick... not the kind of communal experience you want
let get out of hand w/o a little psychoacoustic antidote.
Yes, it is art. andru
Robin Grainger
Some suggestions: Alejandro Jodorowsky
David Lynch
Cocteau/Bunuel (natch)
Man Ray (he did the odd one or two, but they're hard
as hell to find)
Monty Python (conceivably.......)