SPOOK SPORT
THEODORE NEMETH
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7m 36s
Animated by Norman McLaren, using his adroit ink-on-film technique, Mary Ellen Bute's film visualizes Camille Saint-Saëns' DANSE MACABRE. It features colored globes, ellipses and triangles that move ghost-like over monochromatic backgrounds, communicating the notion of spirits rising from a graveyard. Commercially Bute's most successful film, SPOOK SPORT ran for months at Radio City Music Hall. — Jan-Christopher Horak
The story suggested here is that bewitching hour of midnight, spooks and ghosts arise from their graves to cavort about and make merry.
Up Next in THEODORE NEMETH
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SYNCHROMY NO.2
Seeing sound. Music, in addition to pleasing the ear, brings something to the eye. SYNCHROMY NO.2 was designed by a modern (circa-1930s) artist to create moods through the eye as music creates moods through the ear. A pictorial accompaniment in abstract forms to the music of THE EVENING STAR (fro...
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TARENTELLA
By 1940, Mary Ellen Bute's abstractions were shown at select theaters nationwide. Utilizing initial illustrations created by Norman McLaren for her earlier SPOOK SPORT, this "seeing-sound" film demonstrates her ability to visualize music in a style sympathetic to modernist painting. Squiggling li...
