Le Songe Des Chevaux Sauvages

I saw this movie in the late 1960s in an experimental film series at the University of California at Davis, organized by Neal Kreitzer. There is no plot, as I recall. We just watch a herd of horses run through a pond covered with burning oil at night--or at least that's all I remember happening. The colors are brilliant but moody, the motion is incessant, and the sound is unnerving. The film is exciting, frightening, beautiful, and all between. I can't imagine it would win many awards from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but perhaps there is a disclaimer letting us know that no harm came to any of the participating animals. In any case, the images have stayed in my head for nearly 40 years, so perhaps that's worth something (for the movie, not for me).

This is one heck of a Cinema experience. Also known as "Dream of Wild Horses", 45 years later it is the most memorable moment in my movie going experience. (Even more so than "The Night of the Hunter" with Robert Mitchum.) I'll continue searching for a video copy until some alert distributor presents it on DVD. It is the inspiration for my lifelong amateur involvement with media history; and fifo maven at MoMI. Although a Short of eleven minutes, it is so impressionable upon the viewer it should be in all Film Studies archives, especially at Universities. Equally critical, it must be released on a compilation DVD--or downloadable (for Study Purposes Only)!

-- A lyrical stunner, a jewel of Cinema art. Glenn Ralston