Larry Jordan 2: A Cavalcade of Wonder (Animated Films)
Date: 5 May 2001 | Season: Larry Jordan | Tags: Oberhausen Film Festival
A CAVALCADE OF WONDER (ANIMATED FILMS)
Saturday 5 May 2001, at 10:00pm
Oberhausen Lichtburg Filmpalast
Larry Jordan, Our Lady of the Sphere, USA, 1969, 16mm, 10 min
A young boy’s travels through terror, death and the underworld. The flat space breaks into the illusory third dimension as the frame loses definition and threads of narrative fracture into impossible associations. True audio-visual power is conjured from the harmonic collision of ancient and modern.
Larry Jordan, Duo Concertantes, USA, 1961-64, 16mm, 9 min
1 The Centennial Exposition
2 Patricia Gives Birth to a Dream by the Doorway
A dream of pure inspiration, embracing aspects of resurrection, rebirth, ascension and the flight into higher spheres. Two separate films of nostalgia and reverie are combined into an exquisite sequence. Time is suspended as the animated engravings, liberated of meaning, transmit to the inner consciousness.
Larry Jordan, Orb, USA, 1973, 16mm, 5 min
The undefinable circle rolls through a series of transformations and possibilities. Visual modulations provide a sense of day, night and eternal space without time.
Larry Jordan, Masquerade, USA, 1981, 16mm, 5 min
Against a colourful, static background a tragic romantic scene unfolds. A man lies dying in the snow, perhaps suffering from a broken heart, the morning after a masked ball. Metamorphic figures and spirits appear, but Harlequin cannot escape death.
Larry Jordan, Minerva Looks Out Into the Zodiac, USA, 1959, 16mm, 5 min
The hard and inflexible camera eye of Minerva surveys twelve static collages. Each scene represents a hidden entrance into the underworld, imaginary landscapes existing in an illusory dimension.
Larry Jordan, Pink Swine, USA, 1963, 16mm, 3 min
Suggestive images intended to provoke hallucinatory reactions and responses in the viewer. A fast moving, rhythmic animation of junk objects and flat layouts edited entirely in-camera, accompanied by the music of The Beatles. Stroboscopic layout substitution gives the illusion of separate images seen ‘simultaneously’ but without superimposition.
Larry Jordan, Ein Traum der Liebenden (A Dream of Lovers), USA, 1964, 16mm, 7 min
White silhouette figures of man and beast perform airy feats against shifting colour backgrounds. “I wished to show new incidents in the lives of the Greek gods, not included in the mythology passed down to us. I had read all the myths and wanted there to be more.”
Larry Jordan, Finds of the Fortnight, USA, 1959-80, 16mm, 9 min
Surreal titles by Jess Collins are rapidly alternated with animated images. Using flicker-superimposition, Jordan conducts an experiment in perceptual overload. Sometimes the eye is lost in the flashing barrage of words and pictures.
Larry Jordan, The Visible Compendium, USA, 1990, 16mm, 17 min
An attempt to engage what is unknown in the mind, rather than what has been seen and known a thousand times over. “I wanted to constructed enigmas for the viewer to puzzle on and delight in.” A catalogue of visible possible experiences, which the filmmaker considers the pinnacle of his achievements as an animator.
Larry Jordan, Carabosse, USA, 1980, 16mm, 5 min
Blue figures perform a compact, jewel-like opera in surreal form on black-space. Set to the contemplative music of Erik Satie. Compounding its fragility, the film is sometimes presented on a very small scale.