Category Archives: transgression

The tropes of the Polish film poster

Danton poster made  in 1991 by Wiesław Wałkuski, for a 1983 film by Andrzej Wajda

It seems that my current interest in the work of Polish-French artist Roland Topor brings me again to the work of the Polish film poster makers. Their work is fantastic, figuratively and literally. Why is it that graphic design is at such a qualitative height in Poland. And why is it that their work is so unbelievably strange?

The tropes of the Polish film poster school are the fantastique, grotesque, weird, uncanny: pierced and punctured bodies, cut-out figures, dismembered limbs, independent body parts, eerie physicality and visceral transparency.

As to the why, the site owner of Polish film posters has an explanation:

A lot of patronizing drivel had been written about the ‘Polish School’ of poster design being a ‘product’ of a ‘resistance to Communism’ or some such (and by extension, of an overwhelming desire to breathe free under the learned guidance of a Bushmonkey-on-a-cheney). That view, espoused by Western writers who don’t know any better, and Polish ones (who should know better) has been omnipresent lately. No matter that the idea of art as an expression of political circumstance is par excellence a classic communist one.

In fact, quite the opposite seems to be true : free from commercial stranglehold, these artists produced brilliant works over an extended period of time. A lot of talented people found themselves in the right place at the right time. Like any artistic movement (or ‘school’), it had its own dynamics, peaks and valleys. Indeed, some of the most accomplished works were political (pro-socialist). And now the fact that Polish film poster is dead (and had been so since 1989 when the film distribution was privatized) is further evidence of that.–http://www.cinemaposter.com/index.html

As an encore I give you one more poster with the theme of independent body parts:

poster by Lech Majewski 1977 for Le Mouton enrage (1974)
sourced here.

About 500 more movie posters of the same site here.

I’ve reported on the paratextual qualities of the film poster here.

Dessins Erotiques – Bertrand

Dessins Erotiques II (1971) – Bertrand

 

While Bertrand is not exactly canonical to me (too Giger-esque for my tastes), he was published by Eric Losfeld (and anything published by Losfeld is of interest to me). Besides, I quite like the grotesque eroticism on the cover above. Tip of the hat to John Coulthart, who appears to be new to me. I’ll try to find more on Bertrand and Hubert Juin, who wrote the text to this volume.

Here is the first series of Dessins Erotiques

Dessins Erotiques (1969) – Bertrand

This one has an introduction by cinema critic Raymond Borde.

The art of war

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRTCwBB4buc]

Flesh (2005) – Edouard Salier (NSFW)

In the words of Salier:

Flesh contrasts Americans and terrorists. America as corrupt, libidinous and excessive as religious fundamentalists present it. America, the superpower, filled with such fervour and energy that it can feed its own aggressions and contain within itself a violence inherent to the foundations of its very empire. –via Strike Back Films.

More Salier:

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuSkaI_hAWk]

Empire (2005)

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWmvMuxNQuM]

Toks

Most (all?) of the music by Doctor L.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxWz0VzAWPE]

Tony Allen / Doctor L – Never satisfied

Andalusian Dog #2

I’ve posted on the surrealist film Un chien andalou which Luis Buñuel calls A desperate and passionate call to murder but want to pick up on it again to share some macabre and other details.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mBU4KQEWcw]

A ‘seduction’ scene

In this ‘seduction’ scene we see a man going after a woman, she recoils, he finally catches up with her and gropes for her breasts, she pushes him a way, but finally gives in overcome with desire, while he is stroking her breasts her dress disappears to reveal her naked body, causing him to gaze with pleasure into the void, she pushes him away a second time.

Imagine the scene: somewhere in 1929  Luis Buñuel is on set directing Simone Mareuil and Pierre Batcheff in the clip above. He has on a phonograph a recording of Richard Wagner‘s Liebestod which he plays on the background. Little did he know that both protagonists, in a bizarre twist of fate would later commit suicide. Pierre in 1932, Simone in 1954. Not an actual Liebestod, but macabre enough.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNC4kF1e470&NR=1]

Full clip with music by Mogwai

There is so much to be said of this film, watch it for the ‘razor slits the eyeball scene‘  or for some of the early uses of the jarring jump cut. Enjoy.

On whimsy and monochromatics

Combat de nègres dans une cave pendant la nuit

My previous post on Cohl led me to the French avant-garde of the 1880s and 1890s. Above is what is now generally held to be the first monochrome painting, rendered here in an appropriated version by Allais.

Here is the background:

Paul Bilhaud (born in Allichamps, December 31, 1854 – Avon, 1933) was a French poet and dramatist who belonged to the avant-garde group the Incoherents. He is the author of an all-black painting called Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night.

On October 1 1882 the “Exposition des Arts Incohérents” in Paris featured a black painting by the poet Paul Bilhaud titled Combat de nègres dans une cave pendant la nuit, which was appropriated in 1887 by the French humorist Alphonse Allais, in an album of monochrome pictures of various colors, with uniformly ornamental frames, each bearing a comical title. Allais called his all-red painting Tomato Harvest by Apoplectic Cardinals on the Shore of the Red Sea.

Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night predates Malevich‘s, Black Square on a White Field by 31 years.

Compiling this documentation, I stumbled on Il Giornale Nuovo’s post on Allais: Primo-Avrilesque and on Monochrome (une enquête) by L’Alamblog.