How to Get Here
“Those who assure themselves against all risks are bound to lose all.”
You can’t see because everyone else is standing on the benches.
It’s not how you come in; it’s where you come out
The ladder with no rungs...below.
The splotch on the wall
From my hand in the paint
Looks like a face
Looking at the picture
You paint.
Another response, in part, to Richter's film.
Peter, I don't know Richter's film, but I do like this piece. It stands on its own as a good bit of writing.
Les
Dreams That Money Can[‘t] Buy is a 1947 American experimental feature color film written, produced, and directed by surrealist artist and dada film-theorist Hans Richter.
Collaborators included Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Alexander Calder, Darius Milhaud and Fernand Léger. The film won the Award for the Best Original Contribution to the Progress of Cinematography at the 1947 Venice Film Festival.
Joe/Narcissus (Jack Bittner) is an ordinary man ... Each of the seven surreal dream sequences in the diegesis is in fact the creation of a contemporary avant-garde and/or surrealist artist, as follows:
Desire Max Ernst (Director/Writer)
The Girl with the Prefabricated Heart Fernand Léger (Director/Writer)
Ruth, Roses and Revolvers Man Ray (Director/Writer)
Discs Marcel Duchamp (Writer)
Ballet Alexander Calder (Director/Writer)
Circus Alexander Calder (Writer)
Narcissus Hans Richter (Director/Writer)
[edit] Cast
[edit] Credited Cast
• Jack Bittner ... Joe/Narcissus Libby Holman
• Josh White Norman Cazanjian
• Doris Okerson John La Touche (as John Latouche) ... The Gangster
[edit] Uncredited cast
• Louis Applebaum ... Musical Direction Ethel Beseda ... Mrs. A.
• Samuel Cohen ... Mr. A Max Ernst ... Le President
• Jo Fontaine-Maison ... The girl Bernard Friend ... Policeman
• Bernard Graves ... The male voice Dorothy Griffith ...
• Evelyn Hausman ... Anthony Laterie ... The blind man
• Julien Levy ... The man Jo Mitchell ...
• Ray Pippitt ... Miriam Raeburn ...
• Arthur Seymour ... The man Ruth Sobotka ... The girl
• Valerie Tite ... The girl 'who wants to sign him up'