The Devil's plaything American surrealism

Posner, Bruce Charles, 1953- (Added Author). Shepard, David. (Added Author). Porter, Edwin S. (Added Author). Bitzer, G. W., 1872-1944 (Added Author). Fleming, Victor, 1889-1949 (Added Author). Cruze, James, 1884-1942 (Added Author). Webber, Melville. (Added Author). Watson, James S. (James Sibley), 1894-1982 (Added Author). Florey, Robert, 1900-1979 (Added Author). Vorkapich, Slavko. (Added Author). Menzies, William Cameron, 1896-1957 (Added Author). Klein, Charles F. (Added Author). Vance, William. (Added Author). Welles, Orson, 1915-1985 (Added Author). Cornell, Joseph. (Added Author). Jordan, Larry, 1934- (Added Author). Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (Added Author). Vitagraph Company of America. (Added Author). American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. (Added Author). Paramount Pictures, Inc. (Added Author). Anthology Film Archives (Added Author). Eastman Kodak Company. (Added Author). British Film Institute. (Added Author). Cineric, Inc. (Added Author). Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main. (Added Author). Film Preservation Associates. (Added Author). George Eastman House. (Added Author). Library of Congress. (Added Author). Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) (Added Author). Image Entertainment (Firm) (Added Author).

Summary: American experimental film has existed since the technological inception of cinema, through its adolescent rambles of 1900-1919, rising phoenix-like during the high silent era, and finally matured and spread throughout the '30's and onward. The background against which the experimentalists toiled provides a fascinating review of Americana coupled with numerous cross-currents, successes and failures, and an unfailing desire to create on film an image that can be viewed as an independent and provocative art.

Record details

Physical Description: videorecording (DVD)
videodisc
1 videodisc (161 min.) : sd. & si., b&w and col. tinted ; 4 3/4 in.
Publisher: New York, NY : Anthology Film Archives ; Chatsworth, CA : Distributed by Image Entertainment, c2005.

Content descriptions

General Note:	Special features: [PDF files require a DVD-ROM drive and Adobe Acrobat]; Filmmaker biographies and photo gallery; Acknowledgments; Sponsors; Film note authors; Musicians; Credits; Essay "Where the Buffalo Roamed...Relative Histories of an Early American Avant-Garde Film" by film historian Bruce Posner, in accompanying booklet (v.1).
Formatted Contents Note:	Jack and the beanstalk / Edwin S. Porter ; Edison Manufacturing Co. (1902) (9 min.) -- Dream of a rarebit fiend / Edwin S. Porter ; Edison Manufacturing Co. (1906) (10 min.) -- Thieving hand / Vitagraph Company of America (1908) (6 min.) -- Impossible convicts / G. W. "Billy" Bitzer ; American Mutascope and Biograph Co. (1905) (3 min.) -- When the clouds roll by (Food-induced nightmare) / Victor Fleming ; (1919) (8 min.) -- Beggar on horseback (Dream fantasy wedding) / James Cruze ; Paramount Pictures (1925) (7 min.) -- Fall of the house of Usher / Melville Webber and J. S. Watson Jr. (1926-28) (13 min.) -- Life and death of 9413: a Hollywood extra / Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich (1927) (13 min.) -- Love of zero / Robert Florey and William Cameron Menzies (1928) (15 min.) -- Telltale heart / Charles F. Klein (1928) (24 min.) -- Tomato is another day / J. S. Watson Jr. and Alec Wilder (1930/33) (7 min.) -- Hearts of age / William Vance and Orson Welles (1934) (8 min.) -- Enigmatic cinema of Joseph Cornell Unreal news reel No. 2 / Joseph Cornell (1926-28) (6 min.) -- Children's jury / Joseph Cornell (1938) (9 min.) -- Thimble theater / Joseph Cornell, completed by Lawrence Jordan ; (1930s-1970) (6 min.) -- Carousel: Animal opera / Joseph Cornell, completed by Lawrence Jordan ; (1930s-1970) (6 min.) -- Jack's dream / Joseph Cornell, completed by Lawrence Jordan ; (1930-1970) (4 min.).
Creation/Production Credits Note:	Music, Donald Sosin, Eric Beheim, Alec Wilder, Robert Israel, Erik Satie.
Participant or Performer Note:	Douglas Fairbanks, Herbert Stern, Hidegarde Watson, Melville Webber, Joseph Mari, Tamara Shavrova, Anielka Elter, Otto Mateisen, Virginia Nicholson, Orson Welles.
System Details Note:	DVD; Region 0 (All), NTSC; Dolby Digital stereo; original presentation aspect ratio, 1.33:1.