Essential Cinema: JOSEPH CORNELL
Unless otherwise noted, all the films in this program are silent. With the exception of GNIR REDNOW, all films have been preserved by Anthology Film Archives. ROSE HOBART (ca. 1936/68, 20 min, 16mm, sound. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives. Brand-new print!) CENTURIES OF JUNE (1955, 10 min, 16mm. Photographed by Stan Brakhage.) THE AVIARY (1954, 11 min, 16mm. Photographed by Rudy Burckhardt.) GNIR REDNOW (1955, 5 min, 16mm. Photographed by Stan Brakhage.) NYMPHLIGHT (1957, 8 min, 16mm. Photographed by Rudy Burckhardt.) A LEGEND FOR FOUNTAINS (1957/65, 17 min, 16mm. Photographed by Rudy Burckhardt; completed by Lawrence Jordan.) ANGEL (1957, 3 min, 16mm. Photographed by Rudy Burckhardt.) "[ROSE HOBART] is a breathtaking example of the potential for surrealistic imagery within a conventional Hollywood film once it is liberated from its narrative causality. […] In Cornell's later films – both those photographed by Rudy Burckhardt, Stan Brakhage, and Larry Jordan and the collage films which Jordan completed – Joseph Cornell describes the marginal area where the conscious and the unconscious meet. These are films which affirm a sustained present moment in which a quality of reminiscence is implicated." –P. Adams Sitney, VISIONARY FILM