''Moods of the Sea'' ( 1941) is a non-narrative

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

Slavko Vorkapich Slavoljub "Slavko" Vorkapić ( sr-Cyrl, Славољуб "Славко" Воркапић; March 17, 1894 – October 20, 1976), known in English as Slavko Vorkapich, was a Serbian-born Hollywood montagist, an independent cinematic artist, chair ...

and John Hoffman, set to the music of Felix Mendelssohn known as the '' Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) Overture''. The film is considered to be an early example of American

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

and

. It is currently held in the Vorkapich – Hoffman Collection at the

USC School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

Synopsis

''Moods of the Sea'' contains no dialogue and features footage of the sea and surrounding wildlife. Examples of the "moods" of the sea include waves crashing against a rocky cliff and calmly lapping at a beach and rocks.

Production

The short film was created around 1941; some sources list the creation date as around 1940-1942. Vorkapich's title card for the short states that it was copyrighted in 1942.

Release and restoration

Vorkapich was unable to release ''Moods of the Sea'' upon completing it alongside Hoffman, due to a lack of funding and studio interest. The short was released in 1979 and has since received critical attention from film critics and academics. ''Moods of the Sea'' was later restored by film preservation expert David Shepard and the

UCLA Film & Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archiv ...

in 2004, utilizing grant funding from the

National Film Preservation Foundation The National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) is an independent, nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America's film heritage. Growing from a national planning effort led by the Library of Congress, the NFPF began op ...

. It was then included in the 7-disc DVD collection ''Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941'', released in October 2005. ''Moods of the Sea'' has screened at multiple film festivals that included the UCLA Festival of Preservation,

Musée de l'Orangerie The Musée de l'Orangerie ( en, Orangery Museum) is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings located in the west corner of the Tuileries Garden next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The museum is most famous as the ...

, and the 2013

Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival ( cs, Mezinárodní festival dokumentárních filmů Ji.hlava), known as MFDF Ji.hlava or Ji.hlava IDFF, is a documentary film festival in Jihlava, Czech Republic, normally held in late October. T ...

Reception

The film is considered to be an early example of American

and

by critics such as Jan-Christopher Horak. Horak has stated that "True to Vorkapich’s interest in montage, the images from the constantly moving camera are cut precisely to the music, and each sequence reaches a rhythmic crescendo with the melody, emphasizing the subjective nature of the camera’s point of view." ''

The Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...

'' noted that the film was an example of films that "register quite differently than their makers intended: Slavko Vorkapich and John Hoffman's impressionistic, somewhat pompous ''Moods of the Sea'' (1942) tries to marry ocean imagery with the Mendelssohn on its sound track (crashing waves for loud sections, birds for calm ones), and while it's hard to take as seriously as it seems to demand, it fascinates by pushing the visualization of music to such an extreme." Charles Silver, the curator for the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

's department of film, compared ''Moods of the Sea'' to others shown by the museum, specifically Jean Epstein’s '' Le Tempestaire'' and

Arne Sucksdorff Arne Edvard Sucksdorff (3 February 1917 – 4 May 2001) was a Swedish film director, considered one of cinema's greatest documentary filmmakers. He was particularly celebrated for his visually poetic and scenic nature documentaries. His works ...

’s ''Trut! (The Sea Hawk)''.

Legacy

Vorkapich's experimental films, including ''Moods of the Sea'', were an influence on film student and future director George Lucas.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=tt0293427
''Moods of the Sea'' at Light Cone
1941 films American avant-garde and experimental films American black-and-white films Films directed by Slavko Vorkapić American musical films 1941 musical films 1940s avant-garde and experimental films 1940s American films