In an article in Art and Cinema, Nancy Grove describes the cinema of Joseph Cornell, the American box-maker and collagist who was also one of the early avant-garde filmmakers: “Joseph Cornell's films extend his boxes' gentle humor and mystery into time rather than space. They explore themes--the overlooked object, the natural world, the poetic enigmatic incident--that inform all his work. In the boxes, Cornell combined found ephemera in elusive metaphors. Similarly, his films consist of collaged clips or unedited footage shot by others under his supervision; he ‘accepted'only what matched his unspoken dreams.”
Tonight's program includes films by Cornell that have not previously shown at PFA, having been recently made available through Filmmakers' Cooperative in New York. These are: Bookstalls (10-3/4 mins, Silent, Color); By Night with Torch and Spear (8-1/2 mins, Silent, Color); Vaudeville De-Luxe (12 mins, Silent, Color), featuring Rose Hobart in film clips from East of Borneo; and Mulberry Street, photographed by Rudy Burckhardt in the winter of 1957 around Mulberry Street and edited by Larry Jordan in the summer of 1965 (9 mins, Silent).
Also on the program are Three More by Cornell: Carrousel, Jack's Dream and Thimble Theatre, put together in the Forties and made printable by filmmaker Larry Jordan after Cornell's death. “Cornell's editing has not been tampered with; it is sometimes minimal, sometimes extensive, always sensitive. Jack's Dream, for instance, is a puppet animation into which Cornell has inserted a few shots--just enough to throw it into the sphere of artful fantasy--whereas Carrousel is a fully edited animal piece.” Canyon Cinema Cooperative.
(1940s, 24 mins, Silent, black-and-white and Color-tinted, Prints from Canyon Cinema Coop.)