The Cuckoo Waltz (1955)
Genre :
Runtime : 3M
Director : Emiel van Moerkerken
Synopsis
London to Brighton in 4 minutes BBC interlude. From the days when TV was all live and programming was hectic. Often when one program finished, the next one was not ready yet, and the gap had to be filled. So the BBC developed a number of interludes to fill these gaps, this being the most famous one.
A high-speed view of Paris via train-track; Zooming down the Seine by boat. Chomette's first film, Games of Reflections and Speed, traverses tunnels and elevated railways to produce a disarming rhythm.
A wall blocks the path of two people. One man submits, while the other refuses to admit defeat.
In this homage to Zen poet Basho, the subtle changes of a pond are chronicled on film over a period of time. Broughton recites his cuckoo haikus in the background.
A short film where circus performers entertain children.
Director Joseph Cornell evokes the nostalgia of childhood by filming a children's party.
A parade of popular consumer items cut to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". A great example of Pop Art in film.
"I have not changed the editing structure. I have made the films printable. They are the first known fully collaged films, i.e., films made from found footage, and were done sometime in the ‘40s. Cornell combines Vaudeville jugglers, animal acts, circus performers, children eating and dancing, science demonstrations, mythical excerpts, and crucial freeze-frames of faces into a timeless structure, totally unconcerned with our usual expectations of “montage” or cinematic progression. He collects images and preserves them in some kind of cinematic suspension that is hard – impossible – to describe. But it’s a delight to anyone whose soul has not been squashed by the heavy dictates of Art." —Larry Jordan
A series of papers flutter in the wind in this short film by Hollis Frampton.
A man and a woman converse at a cafe's bar in this animated short.
A fast-paced rhythmic impression of dancers, musicians and sportsmen at a highlands event.
The 8 minute short is open to interpretation as it examines the inner thoughts of several people around a table, with the Rita Hayworth version of Put the Blame on Mame playing on the soundtrack.
A butchered cow is decapitated in this short film by Hollis Frampton.
A series of ghost-like vehicles drive by in this short film by Hollis Frampton.
A send-up of Griffith's THE LONELY VILLA and other movies of that sort, such as THE GIRLS AND DADDY, THE LONEDALE OPERATOR and many others, as the heroine, thinking that burglars are trying to break into her home phones her husband at the office, who rushes home.... well, who tries to rush home in his chauffeur-driven automobile.
The camera pans across a field of flowers at extreme speeds in this short film by Hollis Frampton.
A man talks about addiction to barbiturates.
Further examining the medium of film itself, Colorfilm is a work Lawder made while trying to make a minimalist, "pure color" film. Using spliced-together strips of colored film leader in white, yellow, blue, red, green, etc., Lawder ran the film through a projector and found the results to be quite boring. While he was running the film, though, he noticed how beautiful the colored strips of film looked as they ran through the projector. So, he turned a camera on the projector and filmed the colored film gorgeously winding its way through the projector's machinery." - Noel Black, Colorado Springs Independent
Short film which documents Marian Anderson's singing performance at the Lincoln Memorial.