Ballet Mécanique (1924)

Directed by

Dudley Murphy, Fernand Léger

Genre

silent film, experimental film, live-action/animated film

Country

France

Runtime

19 min

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 116 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This is an experimental Dadaist film from 1924 that shows rapid sequences of mechanical objects, human faces, and abstract patterns in a nonstop visual rhythm. There is no story, only a montage of moving shapes and everyday items cut together in a pulsing repetitive way.

experimentalabstractrhythmicfragmentedmechanicalfast-pacednon-narrativeavant-garde

What happens

Ballet Mécanique (1923–24) is a Dadaist, post-Cubist art film conceived, written, and co-directed by the artist Fernand Léger and the filmmaker Dudley Murphy (with cinematographic input from Man Ray). It has a musical score by the American composer George Antheil. The film premiered in a silent version on 24 September 1924 at the Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik (International Exposition for New Theater Technique) in Vienna presented by Frederick Kiesler. It is considered to be a major work of early experimental filmmaking. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.