An attempt to bring the work of surrealist artists to a wider public. The plot is that of an average Joe who can conjure up dreams that will improve his customer's lives. This frame story serves as a link between several avant-garde sequences created by leading visual artists of their day, most of...
The film begins with a sun materializing out of the emptiness of space. In the first of three sequences we see various images from nature against music: the sky, trees, leaves, a bird, water, sand, a beach. A little boy wanders along the beach observing the natural world around him. He walks and...
8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements is an American experimental film directed by Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, and Jean Cocteau. Described by Richter as "part Freud, part Lewis Carroll" and filmed partially on the lawn of Duchamp's summer house in Southbury, Connecticut.
The Challenge... A Tribute to Modern Art is a 1974 American documentary film directed by Herbert Kline. The film shows footage of great modern artists in their studios creating and commenting on their work, with narration and commentary by Orson Welles. It was nominated for an Academy Award for...
Alexander Calder created and performed one of the most important and beloved works, his miniature circus (1926-1931). More than twenty years later Jean Painleve made Le Grande Cirque Calder 1927, begun in 1953 and completed in 1955.
Alexander Calder revolutionized the art of sculpture with his distinctive modernism, freeing sculpture from its stand and adding movement to the art itself. He rose to fame in the 1930s with his renowned Miniature Circus but his modernist creativity skyrocketed with his wire sculptures, an...
Documentation of an exhibition entitled Le Mouvement held in Paris in 1955, co-curated by Breer and Pontus Hulten. Features works and appearances by Breer, Tinguely, Agam, Soto, and others. — Anthology Film Archives
American sculptor, Alexander Calder, creates around the workshop. The film features several of his kinetic sculptures-- Wild moving figurines that spin, undulate and perform circus acts. The film ends on a hanging moon mobile, completing our wacky trip.
Among Alexander Calder's creations were miniature spring-loaded circus figures, made of wire. In this short film, Calder (1989-1976) talks about and demonstrates these toy-like creations. We see them spin, hop, roll, and leap. It's pure whimsy, wit, and glee.
