Comments on: Sequence 18 - Pink Elephants on Parade

By: Squish

Squish — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 02:37:21 +0000

After the success of this Blog-A-Thon, I decided to host one of my own. Drop by and see if you;d like to be a part of it:

http://pasquish.blogspot.com/

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 00:07:57 +0000

Excellent read. Talking about Hollywood “rendering safe” Avant-Garde imagery within dream sequences, hallucinations, and the like reminds me of the fourth point in Fred Camper’s definition of Avant-Garde or Experimental Film, linked to by CultureSnob in his entry in the Blog-A-Thon:

He posits that a true Avant-Garde film exhibits such qualities not only in “scenes bracketed by others in a more realistic mode that would isolate the ‘experimental’ scenes as dream or fantasy sequences.”

By: miriam

miriam — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 00:07:29 +0000

Could you email me a bibliography of sorts? I’m reading Disney War, James B. Stewart’s history of the Eisner reign, and realizing more and more than I want to learn more about Disney’s early history and the creative development of the early classic films. What should I check out?

By: A. Horbal

A. Horbal — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:28:27 +0000

An excellent analysis and a wonderful post! I’m fascinated by films like Dumbo and Hitchcock’s Spellbound in which, as you say, the avant-garde is “rendered safe.”

By: maya

maya — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:18:13 +0000

And what a magnificent treatment of one of my own childhood favorites! Thank you for taking the time to explore this sequence. It reminds me so often that, in the ’60s, we were fond of saying pieces like this were hallucinogenic and drug-imitative, when in truth they imitated nothing of the sort, they were credible on their own terms. Or, as Salvador Dali was himself fond of saying about not needing to use drugs, “I *am* the drug!” Yours is a convincing assertion that experimental film itself was a mode of altered consciousness.