Anémic cinéma

This is the only film directed by French artist Marcel Duchamp, whose name is associated with the Dada and Surrealism movements (who doesn't remember the urinal exhibited with the title "Fountain"?). As other similar avantgarde works made by Man Ray, Hans Richter or Fernand Léger, there's not a plot, only moving shapes and objects, in an attempt to deny the vision of art as contemplation and ecstasy. All we see here is only wheeling spirals and disks in which we can read sentences that apparently have nothing to do with the film. So it's impossible to comment this short the way you can comment any other non-avantgarde movies. It's Dada. It's strange. It's incomprehensible and also a bit monotonous, but we can forgive the genius Man Ray for this.

Well, it's only four or five minutes, so if you can see it do so. Any fan of Duchamp or anyone interested in the experimental films made during the Dada movement in the 1920s would find this fascinating. Others will find it pointless. Non-sensical French phrases are placed on a spinning wheel and inter-cut with neat spiral visual effects. The epitome of Dada and Duchamp's only experience with directing film (to my knowledge.)

I am sort of a fan of the Dada artists, their kind of work, but after seeing 'Anémic Cinéma' I have come to the conclusion that me being a fan does not apply when it comes to the visual art forms. When it comes to visuals, paintings or films, I am able to like strange things before my eyes but not the Dada kind. I mean, I enjoy surrealism a lot including Buñuel's 'Un Chien Andalou' and paintings from Salvador Dalí.

In a way I enjoyed this piece of cinema from famous Dada artist Marcel Duschamp, but only because I knew what kind of man was behind it. What we get to see is a spiral design spinning before our eyes and a disc with French phrases on it, also spinning. Duschamp cuts between these two images although the kind of spiral design and the French text changes after every cut. Interesting? Yes, but that's about it.

Well, what can one say about this? Seven minutes of spirals and circles and nonsensical sentences or sentence-fragments in French, an experiment in revolution I suppose you could say. Duchamp's only known film as director, obviously a conjunction of formalist exercise and dadaist nonsense. I won't say it wore out its welcome, but I'm also glad it wasn't any longer. Watched on YouTube in an OK copy but most with a real interest in the avant-garde will want to catch it on Kino's excellent "Avant-Garde #1 with other experimental works from the silent and early sound periods including works from Man Ray, Joris Ivens, etc.

Not really "rateable" I think, though I'm doing it anyway...

"Anemic Cinema" is a different sort of Dada film from the 1920's when compared to the work of the surrealists which later followed it. Instead of disturbing, dreamlike imagery which became the trademark of Luis Bunuel, or the creepy, uncomfortable world created by the Quay Brothers, the famous French artist Marcel Duchamp here goes more for the look of a moving painting rather than a film in the repetitive cycle this short follows. The effects of the moving discs called "Rotoreliefs" might question your use of drugs, and as a whole the film takes on the look of a flip-book.

Duchamp's film--not his only one as he apparently made several other versions of the Rotoreliefs after this--depicts many whirling spirals intercut with French text, apparently a series of puns that are incomprehensible if you don't know French. While it creates a good effect for a bunch of cardboard discs, the speed of them really isn't fast and doesn't go for a hypnotic effect like you might expect, and the entire thing seems a little too long like some segments could have been removed; it drags after a bit. Also, the amount of movement itself depends: some spirals create better visual effects than others, and at one point one of the least-moving ones stops entirely. Interesting and eye-catching, but little else.