For the artist Fernand Leger (1881-1955), the promise of film as a new art form lay in its potential to exhibit the visual, to present an image rather than tell a story. This attribute characteristic of early cinema, a cinema of attractions (Tom Gunning), has been directly associated with avant-garde film in terms of visual exhibitionism as well as the construction of an audience that is both directly addressed and actively engaged.

Mosaik mécanique

In this grotesque found-footage-film, close-ups of actors playing Adolf Hitler in movies created between 1940 and today are combined in shot/countershot style.

Conference (Notes on Film 05)

In this experimental film, British actor Boris Karloff (1887-1969) embodies over 170 characters, experiencing a schizophrenic horror trip in which he faces versions of himself in different masks, at different ages, of different genders and races. As Karloff’s career spans over 50 years, from the silent era to modern-day cinema, A Masque of Madness allows us to witness the aesthetic and technical developments of the medium in one single film.

A Masque of Madness (Notes on Film 06-B, Monologue 02)

Isolated from the rest of the action, this time the pram from Eisenstein’s Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin really crashes to the bottom.