I won't deny it. I like my movies with a plot.
This one is available online bearing various running-times (the longest being 18 minutes) for the record, the print on Kino's DVD edition within their 2-Disc collection AVANT-GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA OF THE 1920s AND '30s is a mere 11 minutes, with the one I eventually settled on for this review clocking at 16!It is among the more famous efforts in that set and one which boasts the approval (as per the opening scrolling text) of none other than Sergei M.
George Antheil's music for 'Ballet Mecanique' appears to be one of those artistic works that provoked audiences to violence. The original orchestration included such unorthodox musical instruments as a typewriter and an aeroplane motor!
This comment is on the version with the recreated Antheil score.There are films that you can experience directly as they penetrate deep.
Ballet mecanique (1924) *** (out of 4) This short is often considered one of the earliest examples of real avant garde filmmaking. It's worth noting that the film is available in the UNSEEN CINEMA collection and that the production notes for this film say that the score that was written for it in 1924 was so difficult that it couldn't be performed at all.
An abstract collage of images that are hurled at the viewer with increasing speed. Your enjoyment of it will depend entirely on your tolerance for the absurd masquerading as high art.
This is just one of many strange films from the DVD collection "Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1894-1941" and it's from Disc 3.In the notes shown on the screen before the film begins, you learn that the original musical score was so complicated and strange that it was not played at the film's original debut.
This excellent surrealist short is a highly imaginative montage of images of people interspersed with machinery. It doesn't have any narrative whatsoever; instead it concentrates on presenting images in a variety of interesting ways.
I probably can't add much to the other comments made on this movie, but I wanted to point out the effects of music on this film. I've seen it in two different versions, the one released through Kino Video's "Avant Garde" boxed set, and the "Unseen Cinema" boxed set released by many anthologies.
