Entr'acte (1924)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

René Clair

Writers:

Francis Picabia (screenplay)
René Clair (adaptation)

Release Date:

4 December 1924 (USA)

Genre:

Short

Plot:

An absolute dada movie. Somebody gets killed, his coffin gets out of control and after a chase it stops. The person gets out of it and let everybody who followed the coffin dissapear.

Plot Keywords:

Coffin | Dada | Ballet | Slow Motion | Surrealism

Cast

Jean Börlin	...	Le chasseur au chapeau tyrolien / Le prestidigitateur
Inge Frïss	...	La ballerine (as Mlle Frïss)
Francis Picabia	...	Un homme qui charge le canon
Marcel Duchamp	...	Un joueur d'échecs
Man Ray	...	Un joueur d'échecs (as Man-Ray)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Darius Milhaud
Marcel Achard	...	Un homme qui suit le corbillard (uncredited)
Georges Auric	...	Un homme qui suit le corbillard (uncredited)
Georges Charensol	...	Un homme qui suit le corbillard (uncredited)
Georges Lacombe	...	Un homme qui suit le corbillard (uncredited)
Roger Le Bon	...	Un homme qui suit le corbillard (uncredited)
Jean Mamy	...	Un homme qui suit le corbillard (uncredited)
Rolf de Maré	...	Un homme qui suit le corbillard (uncredited)
Erik Satie	...	Un homme qui charge le canon (uncredited)
Pierre Scize	...	Un homme qui suit le corbillard (uncredited)
Louis Touchages	...	Un homme qui suit le corbillard (uncredited)

Directed by
René Clair

Writing credits
Francis Picabia		(screenplay)
René Clair		(adaptation and screenplay)

Produced by
Rolf de Maré	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Erik Satie

Cinematography by
Jimmy Berliet

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
R. Caillaud	....	assistant director
Georges Lacombe	....	assistant director (as G. Lacombe)

Music Department
Henri Sauguet	....	orchestrator

Production Companies

• Les Ballets Suedois

Distributors

• Société Nouvelle des Acacias (1968) (France) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

22 min

Country:

France

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Roof, 15 - Théâtre des Champs Elysées, avenue Montaigne, Paris 8, Paris, France

Company:

Les Ballets Suedois

Trivia:

The ballet Relâche was performed for the first time at the Théâtre des Champs Elyseés in 1924. It is based on a book and with settings by Francis Picabia, a ballet in two acts commissioned and staged by the Ballets Suédois of Rolf de Maré, choreography by Jean Borlin. This film was shown between the two acts, with music by Erik Satie.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#3.3)" (1990)

an eccentric, successfully experimental film, doing anything worth doing technically

We were shown this film in a class where at least once during each class, I start to nod off to sleep. Maybe it's the time of day, or the too-dark lights, but even during one of the Jean Vigo films we saw it didn't grab me. This one did, however, as it is one of the best short films of the 20's, or at least one of the more ambitious ones of the time. There are plenty of Freudian symbols, or maybe spoofs and in-jokes on the symbols (i.e. phallic imagery, cannons, guns, balls, and obsessions with looking up women's skirts).

But more importantly there is an almost need to break through anything expectable. Unlike Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou, however, Entr'acte even goes for the manic and cartoon-like. Like Bunuel's film, there COULD be a certain thread of a story in the proceeding, if you try to take one to mind- here the story could be the unexpected tragedy of death turned up on its own head. However there is also the latter part of the film, which involves a large group running after (in trademark, hilarious fast-motion film) a hearse running down a road. It's a kind of peak of stimulating silent-film cinema, where everything being done can now be just as easily done- and is- on a daily basis by music video directors.

Yet Clair is so inventive with his techniques, of pushing a speed and tempo with his style, that it works well despite making no sense on the surface. It's a film made in the heights of French impressionism and surrealism, and the almost sheer confidence of the filmmaker here propels it into being unforgettable in a way. Most will seek out the Bunuel early works first, of course, but along the way this is worth a shot. At the least, you'll have your own interpretation once its done, not shoved down your throat.