Avant Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920's and '30's

Recently, I found this Deluxe two disc edition of Avant Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920's and '30's at my local library by Kino Video. The first in a series of three of experimental films of the early to mid 20th Century. 
     The collection brings together some hard-to-come-by classics from the personal archive of one of the nations foremost proponents of experimental cinema, Raymond Rohauer. Included are several short films by American Modernist artist Man Ray, the classic Ménilmontant by French Impressionist filmmaker Dimitri Kirsanoff, the iconic and Futurism-influenced film Ballet mécanique by Fernand Léger, The once-rare first film of a 19 year-old schoolboy Orson Welles, The Hearts of Age, in which the Director/Writer/Actor performs as Death, The short documentary film cum love letter to New York Manhatta, and Ralph Steiner's poetic evocation of water that captured the abstract patterns generated by waves.
     
     One of my favorites was by Man Ray, L'Étoile de mer (The Sea Star or The Starfish) based on the poem of the same name written by Robert Desnos. It depicts a couple, played by Alice Prin, better known as Kiki of Montparnasse, nicknamed Queen of Montparnasse, and André de la Rivière acting through scenes that are shot out of focus through diffused and textured glass or off of a mirror. This only adds to the subject of the film by generalizing the characters and letting the forms, the light, and motion move through you less visually than emotionally. It touched me and left an impression on me that I can't easily explain.  

L'Étoile de mer by Man Ray 

 Enjoy L'Étoile de mer here and then buy, rent or borrow from you local library Avant Garde - Experimental Cinema of the 1920s & 1930s.

Contents:
Disc 1

• Le Retour à la raison
  (Man Ray, France, 1923, 2 min.)
• Emak-Bakia
  (Man Ray, France, 1926, 16 min.)
• L'Étoile de mer
  (Man Ray, France, 1928, 15.5 min.)
• Les Mystères du château du Dé
  (Man Ray, France, 1929, 20 min.)
• The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra
  (Slavko Vorkapich, Robert Florey, U.S., 1928, 13 min.)
• Ménilmontant
  (Dimitri Kirsanoff, France, 1926, 37 min.)
• Brumes d'automne
  (Dimitri Kirsanoff, France, 1928, 12 min.)
• Lot in Sodom
  (James Sibley Watson, Melville Webber, U.S., 1933, 27 min.)
• Rhythmus 21
  (Hans Richter, Germany, 1921, 3 min.)
• Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast)
  (Hans Richter, Germany, 1928, 9 min.)
• Anémic cinéma
  (Marcel Duchamp, France, 1926, 6.5 min.)
• Ballet mécanique
  (Fernand Léger, France, 1924, 11 min.)
• Symphonie diagonale
  (Viking Eggeling, France, 1924, 7 min.)
• Le Vampire
  (Jean Painlevé, France, 1939, 8.5 min.)
• The Hearts of Age
  (Orson Welles, William Vance, U.S., 1934, 8 min.)

Disc 2

• Überfall
  (Ernö Metzner, Germany, 1928, 22 min.)
• La glace à trois faces
  (Jean Epstein, France, 1927, 33 min.)
• Le Tempestaire
  (Jean Epstein, France, 1947, 22.5 min.)
• Romance sentimentale
  (Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori V. Alexandrov, France, 1930, 20 min.)
• Autumn Fire
  (Herman G. Weinberg, U.S., 1931, 15 min.)
• Manhatta
  (Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler, U.S., 1921, 10 min.)
• La Coquille et le clergyman
  (Germaine Dulac, France, 1926, 31.5 min.)
• Regen (Rain)
  (Joris Ivens, the Netherlands, 1929, 14 min.)
• H2O
  (Ralph Steiner, U.S., 1929, 12 min.)
• Even -- As You and I
  (Roger Barlow, Harry Hay, LeRoy Robbins, U.S., 1937, 12 min.)

- Written By 'Siva de Ferrera [a.k.a. Keith Ferrera]

Copyright © 2020 'Siva de Ferrera (a.k.a. Keith Ferrera)