Unseen Cinema 3: Light Rhythms

Streaming video - 1924

Light Rhythms is part of the film retrospective Unseen Cinema that explores long-forgotten American experimental cinema.. The rhythmic elements of cinema are explored by artists and filmmakers fascinated in the abstract qualities of light. The American authors of avant-garde classics Ballet mécanique (1923-24), Anémic cinéma (1926), and Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (1934) are finally acknowledged for their seminal artistic achievements made in Europe. Pioneer abstract films by Ralph Steiner, Mary Ellen Bute, Douglass Crockwell, Dwinnell Grant, and George Morris are compared and contrasted with Hollywood montages created by Ernst Lubitsch and Slavko Vorkapich. For the first time on video, composer George Antheil's original 1924 score acco...mpanies Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy's film Ballet mécanique, a truly avant-garde cacophony of image and sound.. 26 FILMS BY FEATURED DIRECTORS: Alexander Alexeieff, Oswell Blakeston, Rutherford Boyd, Al Brick, Francis Bruguière, Mary Ellen Bute, Douglass Crockwell, Marcel Duchamp, W.J. Ganz Studio, Dwinell Grant, John Hoffman, Francis Lee, Fernand Léger, Looney Lens, Ernst Lubitsch, George Morris, Dudley Murphy, Ted Nemeth, Claire Parker, Rrose Selavy, Ralph Steiner, Slavko Vorkapich, Melville Webber.. Curated by Bruce Posner and produced by David Shepard. "Rich with inventive and curious experiments.” - LA Weekly. “There’s a certain American impulse to be cherished here – irascible, restless, and vibrant. The sense of possibility, of play, of discovering the possibilities of the form, is palpable in Unseen Cinema.” - City Pages, Twin Cities. Made possible in part by Cineric, Inc., Eastman Kodak Company, Film Preservation Associates more