19/06/2009








LEN LYE
Rhythms
(DVD PAL interzone) 19,90 euros

A COLOUR BOX 1935 35mm 4’
KALEIDOSCOPE 1935 35mm 4'
THE BIRTH OF THE ROBOT 1936 35mm 7'
RAINBOW DANCE 1936 35mm 5'
TRADE TATTOO 1937 35mm 5'
COLOUR FLIGHT 1938 35mm 4'
SWINGING THE LAMBETH WALK 1939 35mm 4'
COLOR CRY 1953 16mm 3'
RHYTHM 1957 16mm 1'
FREE RADICALS 1958, 1979 16mm 4'
PARTICLES IN SPACE 1967-71, 1980 16mm 4'
TAL FARLOW 1960, 1980 16mm 2’

"There has never been a great film unless it was created in the spirit of the experimental filmmaker."
Len Lye

Len Lye was a major figure in experimental filmmaking as well as a leading kinetic sculptor and an innovative theorist, painter and writer. He pioneered "direct film," film made without a camera, by painting and scratching images directly onto celluloid, by reworking found footage, by casting shadows of objects onto unexposed film, and by experimenting with a number of early color techniques.

"All of a sudden it hit me: If there was such a thing as composing music, there could be such a thing as composing motion. After all, there are melodic figures, why can not there be figures of motion?" - Len Lye

Contains 28-page booklet with texts by David Curtis, Roger Horrocks and Len Lye on his films.

Published in collaboration with:
The Len Lye Foundation, Le Centre Pompidou (Musée d’art moderne), Les Editions du Centre Pompidou, The Post Office Film & Video Library, Shell Film & Video Unit, Shell Services Int'l, The British Tourist Authority.
Presented in association with The iotaCenter, www.iotaCenter.org.
A Colour Box, Rainbow Dance, Birth of the Robot, Trade Tattoo and Swinging the Lambeth Walk supplied by the British Film Institute, whose National Film and Television Archive has preserved these films and carried out restoration work on A Colour Box and Rainbow Dance.

« Les seuls grands films dans l’histoire du cinéma sont ceux créés dans l’esprit du cinéaste expérimental. »
Len Lye
Figure majeure du cinéma expérimental, Len Lye était aussi un sculpteur cinétique renommé, un théoricien novateur, un peintre et un écrivain. Il a inventé le “cinéma direct”, – films faits sans caméra – en peignant et grattant sur la pellicule, en remontant des chutes d’autres films, en exposant la pellicule à l’ombre de divers objets, ou en pratiquant nombre de techniques expérimentales de tirage en couleurs.
« Puisque l’on est capable de composer de la musique, il devrait être possible de composer du mouvement. Après tout, il existe des figures mélodiques, pourquoi n’existerait-il pas des figures du mouvement? »
Len Lye
Comprend un livret de 28 pages avec des textes de David Curtis, Roger Horrocks et Len Lye sur ses films.
Édité avec la participation de :
The Len Lye Foundation,
Le Centre Pompidou (Musée d’art moderne),
Les Editions du Centre Pompidou,
The Post Office Film & Video Library,
Shell Film & Video Unit, Shell Services Int’l,
The British Tourist Authority.
A Colour Box, Rainbow Dance, Birth of the Robot, Trade Tattoo and Swinging the Lambeth Walk supplied by the British Film Institute, whose National Film and Television Archive has preserved these films and carried out restoration work on A Colour Box and Rainbow Dance.