Seances (film)
| Spiritismes/Séances | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Guy Maddin |
| Produced by | Olivia Cooper Hadjian |
| Written by |
Evan Johnson Robert Kotyk Guy Maddin Kim Morgan (additional writer) John Ashbery (additional writer) |
| Starring |
Mathieu Amalric Charlotte Rampling Udo Kier Geraldine Chaplin Maria de Medeiros Amira Casar Adèle Haenel Ariane Labed Elina Löwensohn Kim Morgan Mathieu Demy André Wilms Jean-François Stévenin Slimane Dazi Jacques Nolot Grégory Gadebois Gregory Hlady Jacques Bonnaffé Christophe Paou Miguel Eduardo Cueva Victoire Du Bois Jeanne de France Robinson Stévenin Jean-Baptiste Phou Rudy Andriamimarinosy |
| Cinematography | Benjamin Kasulke |
| Editing by | John Gurdebeke |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
Seances (French title: Spiritismes) is an upcoming film project by filmmaker and installation artist Guy Maddin, in which will re-create imagined versions of lost films and other rare works from cinema's silent film era.[1] Maddin will shoot one hundred short films within a hundred-day span, at locations in Canada, France, and the United States.[2] The project will take the form of an art installation with an online (website) component, using the 100 short films as raw material for recombination through automatic, machinic processes, in a form of aleatoric art. The film shoots themselves are being presented as art installation projects, during which Maddin, along with the cast and crew, holds a séance during which Maddin "invites the spirit of a lost photoplay to possess them."[3] The cameras used to record the shoots also live-stream their video online.
Production
Seances is described as séances for the ghosts of lost silent cinema."[4] The majority of silent films (over 80%) have been lost for various reasons, whether misplaced, destroyed, or never completed -- including the work of well-known directors internationally regarded as significant figures in cinema history.[5]
At the SXSW 2012 festival, Maddin announced that he had begun production on the Seances project.[2] On March 4, 2012, Maddin's productions of Blue Mountains Mystery (a lost Lottie Lyell film originally produced in Australia in 1921) and Poto-Poto (an unrealized Erich von Stroheim project), were reported in the press.[6]
Maddin directed 17 films at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in February and March of 2013. This was followed by a 12-film shoot in Montreal in July 2013, at the PHI Centre, co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), the PHI Centre and Buffalo Gal Pictures. The Montreal shoot took place over 13 days, employing 66 Quebec actors including Roy Dupuis, Céline Bonnier, Carole Laure and Caroline Dhavernas.[7]
Interactive
The films will be incorporated into an NFB interactive web project, where online "viewers can hold their own virtual séances."[8][9] This website will randomly generate a combination of the 100 short films, "connected together into a paranormally eerie, semi-coherent whole." The number of films will ensure "hundreds of billions of unique permutations."[3]
Theatrical release
Seances will also see theatrical release as a series of "live seances," during which degradations of the theatrical screening will occur. Cameras viewing the audience will register movement, talking, and so on, and adjust or alter the screening in response: "in direct proportion to sagging audience attentiveness, the audibility of the dialogue weakens; the actors are more likely to forget their lines; and the camera more likely to stray off the set, making boom mikes or crew members visible."[3]
List of "resurrected" films
In addition to re-imagining lost films, Maddin is also "resurrecting" projects that were planned but never filmed. Maddin has stated that he will not be parodying or otherwise mimicking the approach of the directors whose films he is re-envisioning, but rather tried to capture the imagined "spirits of the films, rather than of their directors."[9]
Paris
The following films were filmed at Centre Pompidou, Paris, February 22 - March 12, 2012.[3]
- Dream Woman (lost Alice Guy movie, 1914, USA)
- Thérèse Raquin [or Shadows of Fear] (lost Jacques Feyder, 1928, Germany)
- Gardener Boy Sought (lost George Schnéevoigt, 1913, Denmark)
- Poto-Poto (unrealized Erich von Stroheim project)
- Rausch [Intoxication] (lost Ernst Lubitsch, 1919, Germany)
- The Strength of a Moustache (lost Mikio Naruse, 1931, Japan)
- Lines of the Hand (unrealized Jean Vigo; his daughter Luce Vigo acted in this)
- Over Barbed Wire (unrealized Aleksandr Dovzhenko, USSR)
- Fist of a Cripple (lost Tetos Dimitriadis, 1930, Greece)
- Blue Mountains Mystery (lost Lottie Lyell, 1921, Australia)
- Idle Wives (lost Lois Weber, 1916)
- Resurrection of Love (lost Kenji Mizoguchi, 1923, Japan)
- Tararira (lost Benjamin Fondane, 1936, Argentina)
- Bits of Life (lost Lon Chaney, Sr. & Anna May Wong, 1921, USA)
- Ladies of the Mob (lost William Wellman)
- Hello Pop! (lost Jack Cummings, 1933, USA)
- Sperduto nel buio [Lost in the Dark] (lost Nino Martoglio, 1914, Italy)
- The Blind Man (Alfred Hitchcock, unrealized)
An additional film, How to Take a Bath (lost Dwain Esper sexploitation film, 1937, USA) was scripted by American poet John Ashbery and completed in 2010."[9] In addition, Ashbery has given [Maddin] a copy of his collage-play The Inn of the Guardian Angel, which was produced from New York Times obituaries and 1930 Hollywood fanzines, to "strip-mine for dialogue for the lost films."[10]
Montreal
The following films were filmed at Centre PHI, Montreal, July 7–20, 2013.[7][8]
This film-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
- Saint, Devil and Woman (Frederick Sullivan, 1916)
- Tokyo’s Ginza District (Tsunekichi Shibata, 1898, Japan)
- Gabriele, the Lamplighter of the Harbour (Elvira Notari, 1919, Italy)
- Der Janus-kopf (F.W. Murnau, 1920, Germany)
- Women Skeletons (Guan Heifeng, 1922, China)
- Scout Day (Albert Tessier, 1929, Canada)
- The Scorching Flame (1918, Armand Robin, Canada)
References
- ↑ Max Nelson. "Cinematic Ghosts: A Conversation with Guy Maddin". Double Exposure. Retrieved 2013-01-04.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "SXSW '12 Interview: Guy Maddin Talks Making 100 Short Films In 100 Days In Four Countries With Current Project 'Spiritismes'". Interview. The Playlist. 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2012-11-21.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Maddin, Guy, Evan Johnson and Robert Kotyk. Séances: Project Manual. Designed by Galen Johnson. Cinema Atelier Tovar, 2012.
- ↑ "Guy Maddin is Live-Streaming Seances from Paris, Because of Course He Is". Criterion Corner (blog). 2012-03-00. Retrieved 2012-11-21.
- ↑ "It's Alive! Guy Maddin and Spiritismes". Sunset Gun (blog). 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2012-11-21.
- ↑ "Spiritismes: Guy Maddin revives lost films in Paris". Silent London (blog). 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2012-11-21.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Dunlevy, T'cha. "Guy Maddin recreating lost films of the silent era". Montreal Gazette (4 July 2013). Retrieved 9 July 2013.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Woods, Allan (4 July 2013). "Guy Maddin’s performance art installation Seances begins filming in Montreal". Toronto Star. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Romney, Jonathan. "A Canadian in Paris." Sight & Sound (May 2012).
- ↑ Enright, Robert and Meeka Walsh. "A Constellation of Narratives: Dreaming the History of Lost Cinema: an interview with Guy Maddin." Border Crossings 123 (2012).
External links
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