Pacific 231

Wow. Just wow. Love this film short, and the tone poem it was made for. Arthur Honegger,the composer, and a train enthusiast, nailed it with this one. I actually played it once (metropolitan symphony orchestra, second violin part) when I was 18 or 19. An able conductor was on the podium and yes, helped us find more momentum at an increasingly slower tempo. I sat in front of brass and percussion, you can only imagine the fun I had feeling that music in the pit of my stomach and punching my sinuses! No, seriously, it was a real rush. So, when I saw this film short, it was quite evident that our auteur (Jean Mitry) really "got it". Take especially the last three minutes of the film and you really will begin to appreciate the term "Heavy Metal" in a whole new way! This is steam punk on steroids, baby!

Very unique short. For ten minutes there is just music and editing coupled with shots of a train moving from one destination to the next. The fluid editing that weaves itself into the music makes this extremely dull-on-paper concept into a short film that is interesting and actually thrilling. Quick-cuts abound, highlighting the biggest flare-ups in the bombastic soundtrack. Music and editing alone create tension, drive narrative, and hold attention better than most dialogue-heavy thrillers even begin to attempt to manage. As a big fan of thrillers, modern attempts still could learn something here!

The only comment on this experimental work from 1949 has it backwards. The film is based on the music, not the other way around. It's a nine minute illustration, Fantasia-like, of a piece which composer Arthur Honegger wrote in 1923.

This from the Wikipedia: "Pacific 231 is an orchestral work by Arthur Honegger, written in 1923. It is one of his most frequently performed works today.

The popular interpretation of the piece is that it depicts a steam locomotive, an interpretation that is supported by the title of the piece. Honegger, however, insisted that he wrote it as an exercise in building momentum while the tempo of the piece slows. He originally titled it Mouvement Symphonique, only giving it the name Pacific 231 after it was finished.

Nonetheless, Honegger was widely known as a train enthusiast, and once notably said: 'I have always loved locomotives passionately. For me they are living creatures and I love them as others love women or horses.'"

By the way, "Pacific 231" is one of Honeggar's most often played pieces and worth a good listen on its own.

After watching so many of those Soviet-style "symphonies," I guess I must be sick of them. Dziga Vertov, one of the most prominent advocates of the montage, was set on ultimately abolishing all non-documentary styles of film-making. Thankfully, this goal never came to pass, for, though I fervently admire 'The Man with the Movie Camera (1929),' I can't imagine having to enjoy it every single day. Technically speaking, there absolutely nothing wrong Jean Mitry's 'Pacific 321 (1949).' It features some striking and creative photography of a moving locomotive, and is edited rhythmically to complement Arthur Honegger's classical composition of the same name, which is itself often interpreted as representing the journey of a steam locomotive. All this is accomplished with genuine skill, to create appropriate visuals that precisely match the tempo of the music (which, by the way, is quite an excellent classical piece).

The only problem – and it pains me to say this about a film into which obvious effort have been poured – is that I found 'Pacific 231' to be markedly uninteresting, and I was simply waiting for it to finish. The first three minutes are particularly tiresome, as we watch a locomotive prepare for its journey, the soundtrack featuring only the ordinary background sounds of a railway station. Once Honegger's musical piece starts up, the rhythm begins to speed up, and the film becomes much more interesting. As the music starts speeding up, so too does the train, and Mitry correspondingly increases the tempo of his editing. There are some inventive shots of the working machinery, such as driving wheels and running gear, as the train darts forward at great speed. Fans of experimental cinema will probably enjoy this 10-minute short, and, in another mood, I might have enjoyed it, as well.

An exceptionally well edited and sound synchronized work of composer Arthur Honegger probably wedded by the filmmaker through title as much as rhythm. I've researched neither of the collaborators but given Honneger's titling I guess we can assume a connection and inspiration that director Mark Mitry achieves in this short "non-doc" experimental.

Gargantuan man made objects of power and strength such as airliners, ocean liners and bridges over bays may be larger but they do not awe with the expressive intimacy that a locomotive must have provided as it flexed it muscles along the rails, smoked and hissed at the station crowd. The film with its three minute prelude of ambient sound has its own sense of lyricism before joining in with the composer's work allowing for a fuller experience that is both grounded and poetic but with the locomotive its star from rounhouse to destination.