Violons d'Ingres (literally "Violins of Ingres"), released in English-speaking markets as Hobbies Across the Sea and as Creation and Recreation,[1] is a 1939 French short surrealist documentary film directed by Jacques B. Brunius, in collaboration with Georges Labrousse.
| Violons d'Ingres | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Jacques B. Brunius Georges Labrousse |
| Written by | Jacques B. Brunius |
| Starring | Georges Méliès Yves Tanguy |
| Narrated by | Yves Gladine Agnès Capri |
| Cinematography | André Dantan |
| Edited by | Brunius and Labrousse |
| Music by | Maurice Jaubert |
Release date |
|
Running time | 32 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Production
editJacques B. Brunius, a French artist active in the Surrealist movement, did much work in the French film industry in the 1930s. In addition to acting onscreen, he assistant-directed feature films, directed short advertisements, wrote film reviews, and made seven documentary films, the last of which was Violons d'Ingres.[2]
The sequence featuring Georges Méliès was directed by Méliès in 1933, as an advertising film for the Régie des Tabacs of France, commissioned by Brunius and Jean Aurenche.[3] The 28-second sequence, a trick film featuring two uses of the substitution splice technique Méliès had made famous, is notable as his final completed work as a film director.[4]
Style and themes
editThe film is directed and edited in a surrealistic style, freely departing from the representative realism standard for documentary films of the time.[5] The title derives from the French phrase violon d'Ingres, meaning a hobby or avocation; it refers to the celebrated nineteenth-century painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, who played the violin for enjoyment. A story goes that, when hosting visitors at his studio, Ingres demanded they listen to his amateur violin efforts rather than study his acclaimed paintings.[5] The film praises hobbyist artistry, inviting the viewer to think of amateur work in terms of childlike creativity and imagination surviving through adulthood.[6]
Release and legacy
editViolons d'Ingres premiered at the 1939 New York World's Fair.[1] It was also screened at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 1990,[5] and at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in 2015.[7] It remains the best-known of the seven documentaries made by Brunius.[2] A 2013 essay in the Journal of Film Preservation, highlighting the themes of amateur artistry and of "the survival of the childhood spirit", named it as Brunius's "most personal film".[6]
References
edit- ^ a b "Violons d'Ingres." British Film Institute. Accessed 2021-04-27.
- ^ a b Greene, Nathaniel (2013), "Jacques-Bernard Brunius, pionnier du film de montage", 1895. Mille Huit Cent Quatre-vingt-quinze, 70 (70): 54–81, doi:10.4000/1895.4674
- ^ Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 88, ISBN 9782732437323
- ^ Mény, Jacques (1997), "Méliès imaginé ou images de Méliès au cinéma et à la télévision", in Malthête, Jacques; Marie, Michel (eds.), Georges Méliès, l'illusionniste fin de siècle?: actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, 13–22 août 1996, Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne nouvelle, p. 386, ISBN 2878541405
- ^ a b c "Violons d'Ingres." BAMPFA. 1990. Accessed 2021-04-27.
- ^ a b Marie, Michel (April 2013), "Jacques-Bernard Brunius: Un cinéaste surréaliste", Journal of Film Preservation, 88: 109–110
- ^ "Violons d'Ingres." Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival. 2015. Accessed 2021-04-27.
External links
edit
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