The Idea (1932 film)

The Idea

A woman, representing an idea, confronts a crowd of workers.
Directed by Berthold Bartosch
Written by Berthold Bartosch
Based on The Idea 
by Frans Masereel
Music by Arthur Honegger
Release dates
  • 1932
Running time
 25 minutes
Country France
Language Silent

The Idea (French: L'Idée) is a 1932 animated film by Hungarian filmmaker Berthold Bartosch (1893–1968), based on the 1920 wordless novel of the same name by Flemish artist Frans Masereel (1889–1972). The film stars a naked woman, representing a thinker's idea; as she goes out into the world, the frightened authorities unsuccessfully try to cover up her nudity. A man who stands up for her is executed, and a workers' revolution she inspires is violently suppressed by big business.

Bartosch spent two years animating the film, initially in collaboration with Masereel. Bartosch used complicated techniques with multiple layers of superimposed animation to create the intricately detailed film. The film features an electronic music score by composer Arthur Honegger (1892–1955).[1]

Synopsis

A thinker sits by a window, and an idea comes to him in the form of a doll-sized naked woman. The thinker puts the woman in an envelope and sends her out into the world. She finds herself in an office building, where the frightened authorities attempt to clothe her, but she soon sheds the clothing. She becomes involved with a young working class man, and he appeals to the people on her behalf; he is captured and executed, and his coffin is carried through the streets by the people. Another man presses her into a book, and delivers handbills of her to the frightened people. She is captured by a businessman, and armed soldiers are sent to put down a revolution of the people; the people are suppressed, and the woman, now white-haired, becomes a star and drifts into the cosmos.[2]

Production history

An ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument used in the score; likely the first instance of electronic music used in film

Bartosch, who had immigrated to France from Hungary,[3] and Masereel had agreed in 1930 to collaborate on an adaptation of Masereel's wordless novel The Idea (1919), but Masereel backed out of the production before it was finished. In the end of Masereel's version, the woman returns to the thinker; Bartosch's film ends with the defeat of the woman.[4]

Bartosch made the film over two years in a space over the Vieux Colombier Theatre.[3] The film required 45,000 frames of up to four levels of animation each, and up to eighteen camera superimpositions. Bartosch combined drawings with hinged cardboard cutout characters.[5] Arthur Honegger provided the soundtrack; he used an ondes Martenot in what is likely the first instance of electronic music used in film.[5]

Score

The score was by composer Arthur Honegger in ten parts:[6]

  1. Générique;
  2. Arbres et idées;
  3. Facteur;
  4. Tribunal;
  5. Usine;
  6. Cortège funèbre
  7. Savant;
  8. La rotation;
  9. Cortège ouvriers-soldats;
  10. Coda.

Reception

Film historian William Moritz called The Idea "the first animation film created as an artwork with serious, even tragic, social and philosophical themes".[3] Historian Perry Willett wrote that the film is at times unclear, and was "something of a disappointment".[7]

References

  1. ↑ Wells 2002, p. 119.
  2. ↑ Neupert 2011, pp. 61–62.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Neupert 2011, p. 60.
  4. ↑ Willett 2005, p. 130.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Neupert 2011, p. 63.
  6. ↑ Spratt 1987, p. 537.
  7. ↑ Willett 2005, pp. 129–130.

Works cited

External links