Surrealism and film after 1945: Absolutely modern mysteries

by Kristoffer Noheden (Editor), Abigail Susik (Editor)

Overview

This is the first volume to focus on the diverse permutations of international surrealist cinema after the canonical interwar period. The collection features eleven original contributions by prominent scholars such as Tom Gunning, Michael Löwy, Gavin Parkinson and Michael Richardson, alongside other leading and emerging researchers. An introductory chapter offers a historical overview as well as a theoretical framework for specific methodological approaches. The collection demonstrates that renowned figures such as Leonora Carrington, Maya Deren, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jan Švankmajer took part in shaping a vibrant and distinctive surrealist film culture following the Second World War. Addressing highly influential films and directors related to international surrealism during the second half of the twentieth century, it expands the purview of both surrealism and film studies by situating surrealism as a major force in postwar cinema.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526179012
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	07/30/2024
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kristoffer Noheden is Reader in Cinema Studies at Stockholm University
Abigail Susik is Joint Series Editor of the Bloomsbury Transnational Surrealism Book Series

Table of Contents

Introduction: absolutely modern mysteries – Abigail Susik and Kristoffer Noheden
1 Surrealist networks and the films of Maya Deren – Krzysztof Fijalkowski
2 Savage art: Michel Zimbacca's L’Invention du monde – Michael Löwy
3 Joseph Cornell’s American appropriation of surrealism by means of cinema – Tom Gunning
4 Buñuel renascitur: return of the prodigious son – Paul Hammond
5 From Max Ernst’s collage to Jean Desvilles' cut-out animation: transposing Une semaine de bonté to film – Arnaud Maillet
6 The uncontrollable in art: the Second Situationist International on freedom, Freddie, and film – Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen
7 From Paris n’existe pas to Berkeley Square: surrealism, time travel and ‘second sight’ – Gavin Parkinson
8 ‘Open the locksmiths’: on the collaboration between surrealism and Positif – Michael Richardson
9 Mobile surrealism: Leonora Carrington’s cinematic adventures in Mexico – Felicity Gee
10 The alchemy of surrealist presence in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain – Abigail Susik
11 Surrealist cinema in the Anthropocene: Nelly Kaplan, Jan Švankmajer, and the revolt of animals – Kristoffer Noheden
Index

Editorial Reviews

Selected as an August 2022 Choice Top 75 Community College Title

‘This collection is a labor of love by a group of scholars. Noheden and Susik chose the essays well: all are informative and well-written... The collection amply proves the thesis – that in the post-1945 period surrealism was alive and kicking and its influence on later filmmakers cannot be doubted.’
W. A. Vincent, Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association.

‘In this major contribution to the burgeoning canon of interdisciplinary critical work in surrealism studies, Noheden and Susik have gathered together exciting new essays by leading scholars in the field, offering detailed historical and theoretical analyses of key films and directors which will wholly recalibrate our understanding of post-war developments in surrealism and its cinematic expressions.’
Patricia Allmer, author of Lee Miller: Photography, Surrealism, and Beyond

‘The marvellous essays in Noheden and Susik’s Surrealism and film after 1945 make a compelling case for post-1945 as truly the movement’s “age of cinema” and a golden one at that. Sharpening our understanding of surrealist engagements with cinema and cinematic engagements with surrealism while inviting us to go expansively beyond the commonly understood historic and geographic boundaries, the essays in this collection provide a wondrous set of “enchanted wanderings” through postwar cinema, film culture and aesthetics. I am equally excited by what this collection accomplishes – in terms of a richer sense of the place(s) of surrealism in cinema’s modern era and its global nature – as I am by the new inquiries and itineraries it will surely inspire.’
James Leo Cahill, author of Zoological Surrealism: The Nonhuman Cinema of Jean Painlevé

From the Publisher