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Surrealist Film
Surrealist cinema is a modernist approach to film theory, criticism, and production, with origins in Paris in the 1920s. The Surrealist movement used shocking, irrational, or absurd imagery and Freudian dream symbolism to challenge the traditional function of art to represent reality. Related to Dada cinema, Surrealist cinema is characterized by juxtapositions, the rejection of dramatic psychology, and a frequent use of shocking imagery. Philippe Soupault and André Breton’s 1920 book collaboration ''Les Champs magnétiques'' is often considered to be the first Surrealist work, but it was only once Breton had completed his ''Surrealist Manifesto'' in 1924 that ‘Surrealism drafted itself an official birth certificate.’ Surrealist films of the twenties include René Clair's ''Entr'acte'' (1924), Fernand Léger's ''Ballet Mécanique'' (1924), Jean Renoir's '' La Fille de l'Eau'' (1924), Marcel Duchamp's ''Anemic Cinema'' (1926), Jean Epstein's '' Fall of the House of Usher'' (19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film Theory
Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large. Film theory is not to be confused with general film criticism, or film history, though these three disciplines interrelate. Although some branches of film theory are derived from linguistics and literary theory, it also originated and overlaps with the philosophy of film. History Early theory, before 1945 French philosopher Henri Bergson's '' Matter and Memory'' (1896) anticipated the development of film theory during the birth of cinema in the early twentieth century. Bergson commented on the need for new ways of thinking about movement, and coined the terms "the movement-image" and "the time-image". However, in his 1906 essay ''L'i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. He has had an immense impact on 20th- and 21st-century art, and a seminal influence on the development of conceptual art. By the time of World War I, he had rejected the work of many of his fellow artists (such as Henri Matisse) as "retinal," intended only to please the eye. Instead, he wanted to use art to serve the mind. Duchamp is remembered as a pioneering figure partly because of the two famous scandals he provoked -- his ''Nude Descending a Staircase'' that was the most talked-about work of the landmark ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoundly personal meditations into the myriad struggles facing the psyche and the soul". Among his most acclaimed works are ''The Seventh Seal'' (1957), ''Wild Strawberries (film), Wild Strawberries'' (1957), ''Persona (1966 film), Persona'' (1966) and ''Fanny and Alexander'' (1982), which were included in the The Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012, 2012 edition of ''Sight & Sound'' Greatest Films of All Time. He was also ranked No. 8 on the magazine's 2002 "Greatest Directors of All Time" list. Other notable works include ''Sawdust and Tinsel'' (1953), ''A Lesson in Love (1954 film), A Lesson in Love'' (1954), ''Smiles of a Summer Night'' (1955), ''The Virgin Spring'' (1960), ''Through a Glass Darkly (film), Through a Glass Darkly' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in his work. Born in Figueres in Catalonia, Dalí received his formal education in fine arts in Madrid. Influenced by Impressionism and the Renaissance art, Renaissance masters from a young age, he became increasingly attracted to Cubism and avant-garde movements. He moved closer to Surrealism in the late 1920s and joined the Surrealist group in 1929, soon becoming one of its leading exponents. His best-known work, ''The Persistence of Memory'', was completed in August 1931. Dalí lived in France throughout the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) before leaving for the United States in 1940 where he achieved commercial success. He returned to Spain in 1948 where he announced his return to the Catholic fai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Un Chien Andalou
(, ''An Andalusian Dog'') is a 1929 French silent short film directed, produced and edited by Luis Buñuel, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Salvador Dalí. Buñuel's first film, it was initially released in a limited capacity at Studio des Ursulines in Paris, but became popular and ran for eight months. has no plot in the conventional sense of the word. With disjointed chronology, jumping from the initial "once upon a time" to "eight years later" without events or characters changing, it uses dream logic in narrative flow that can be described in terms of the then-popular Freudian free association, presenting a series of tenuously related scenes. is a seminal work of surrealist cinema. Synopsis A man sharpens a razor and tests it on his thumb. He gazes at the moon, which is about to be bisected by a thin cloud. A young woman stares straight ahead as he brings the razor near her eye. A cut occurs to the cloud passing in front of the moon, and then to a close-up of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonin Artaud
Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely recognized as a major figure of the European avant-garde, he had a particularly strong influence on twentieth-century theatre through his conceptualization of the Theatre of Cruelty. Known for his raw, surreal and transgressive work, his texts explored themes from the cosmologies of ancient cultures, philosophy, the occult, mysticism and indigenous Mexican and Balinese practices. Early life Antonin was born in Marseille, to Euphrasie Nalpas and Antoine-Roi Artaud. His parents were first cousins: his grandmothers were sisters from Smyrna (modern day İzmir, Turkey). His paternal grandmother, Catherine Chilé, was raised in Marseille, where she married Marius Artaud, a Frenchman. His maternal grandmother, Mariette Chilé, grew up in Smy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Seashell And The Clergyman
''The Seashell and the Clergyman'' () is a 1928 French experimental film directed by Germaine Dulac, from an original scenario by Antonin Artaud. It premiered in Paris on 9 February 1928. The film is associated with French Surrealism. Synopsis The film follows the erotic hallucinations of a priest lusting after the wife of a general. Reception and legacy Although accounts differ, it seems that Artaud disapproved of Dulac's treatment of his scenario. The film was overshadowed by ''Un chien andalou'' (''An Andalusian Dog'', 1929), written by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí and directed by Buñuel. ''Un chien andalou'' is considered the first surrealist film, but its foundations in ''The Seashell and the Clergyman'' have been all but overlooked. However, the iconic techniques associated with surrealist cinema are all borrowed from this early film. In Lee Jamieson's analysis of the film, the surrealist treatment of the image is clear. He writes: The British Board of Film Censors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germaine Dulac
Germaine Dulac (; born Charlotte Elisabeth Germaine Saisset-Schneider; 17 November 1882 – 20 July 1942)Flitterman-Lewis 1996 was a French filmmaker, film theorist, journalist and critic. She was born in Amiens and moved to Paris in early childhood. A few years after her marriage she embarked on a journalistic career in a feminist magazine, and later became interested in film. With the help of her husband and friend she founded a film company and directed a few commercial works before slowly moving into Impressionist and Surrealist territory. She is best known today for her Impressionist film, '' La Souriante Madame Beudet'' (''The Smiling Madam Beudet'', 1922/23), and her Surrealist experiment, '' La Coquille et le Clergyman'' (''The Seashell and the Clergyman'', 1928). Her career as filmmaker suffered after the introduction of sound film and she spent the last decade of her life working on newsreels for Pathé and Gaumont. Biography Germaine Dulac was born in Amiens, Fran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fall Of The House Of Usher (1928 American Film)
''The Fall of the House of Usher'' (1928) is a short silent horror film adaptation of the 1839 short story " The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. The movie was co-directed by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber, and starred Herbert Stern, Hildegarde Watson, and Melville Webber (who also wrote the screenplay). It tells the story of a brother and sister who live under a family curse. An avant-garde experimental film running only 13 minutes, the visual element predominates, including shots through prisms to create optical distortion. There is no dialogue in the film, though one sequence features letters written in the air moving across the screen. A music score was written in 1959 for the film by the directors' friend, composer Alec Wilder. His 1959 score was his second attempt (after the score for winds, brass and percussion which he did for them originally in 1929), and he composed it for a recording of the New York Woodwind Quintet and a percussionist, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Sibley Watson
James Sibley Watson Jr. (August 10, 1894 – March 31, 1982) was an American medical doctor, philanthropist, publisher, editor, photographer, and early experimenter in motion pictures. Early life Born in Rochester, New York, James Sibley Watson Jr. was an heir to the Western Union telegraph fortune created by his grandfathers, Don Alonzo Watson and Hiram Sibley. Don Alonzo and Hiram Sibley were such close friends and business partners that they named their sons after each other: James Sibley Watson Sr. and Hiram Watson Sibley. In 1891, J.S. Watson Sr. married the daughter of his father's longtime business partner, Emily Sibley. Emily became a prominent philanthropist in Rochester, who established the city's Memorial Art Gallery. Their son, J.S. Watson Jr., thus inherited both fortune and fame, and grew up in a wealthy family that cultivated appreciation for art and encouraged an active, generous engagement in the Rochester community. Watson graduated from Harvard on June 22, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Luis Buñuel filmography, Buñuel's works were known for their avant-garde surrealism which were also infused with political commentary. Often associated with the surrealist movement of the 1920s, Buñuel's career spanned the 1920s through the 1970s. He collaborated with prolific surrealist painter Salvador Dali on ''Un Chien Andalou'' (1929) and ''L'Age d'Or'' (1930). Both films are considered masterpieces of surrealist cinema. From 1947 to 1960, he honed his skills as a director in Mexico, making grounded and human melodramas such as ''Gran Casino'' (1947), ''Los Olvidados'' (1950) and ''Él (film), Él'' (1953). Here is where he gained the fundamentals of storytelling. Buñuel then transitioned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
