Preceded by: L'Affaire est dans le sac (It's In the Bag): "This nonsense comedy abounds in poetic gags...The actors were from the 'October Group,' a company of the extreme left founded by J-P Dreyfus...This important work by Prévert did not have a single commercial showing, yet has become a classic" (Georges Sadoul, Dictionary of Films). "The Préverts' wry humor disconcerted spectators instead of making them laugh, for they saw themselves too clearly in the odious or ridiculous figures on the screen" (Jacques Brunius). Directed by Pierre Prévert. Written by Jacques Prévert from a script by A. Rathony. Photographed by A. Gibory, Eli Lotar. With Jean-Paul Dreyfus, Etienne Decroux. (France, 1932, 42 mins, In French with English subtitles, B&W, 16mm, Print from Interama) "Surrealism dictated both the subject and the treatment of Violons d'Ingres. The representative documentary of realist intent...represents a norm from which Brunius departs without a trace of nostalgia. The title of his movie is a French colloquialism alluding to Ingres' insistence upon having visitors to his studio listen to his inferior violin-playing instead of looking at his superior canvases...Violons d'Ingres is devoted exclusively to people who have refused to measure their lives by the utilitarian...Henri Rousseau, for example, in whom his contemporaries could see only a Customs official with a mania for painting; Ferdinand Cheval, who built a dream castle, stone by stone, from material gathered on the delivery route he followed day after day as a country mailman; Leon Corcuff, the Parisian taxi-driver in whom Brunius discovered 'an inventor of useless devices' like aluminum shoes, extensible frames, and collapsible beds...(All) externalize an inner world, so provoking what Breton calls enthusiastically 'the spectacular explosion of desire which saves.'" -- J. H. Matthews, Surrealism and Film As we go to press we have not confirmed that our print has English subtitles. If not, a synopsis will be provided. Note: Print came with English commentary.