Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
A seminal work born of the experimental film movement of the 1920s, the French artist Marcel Duchamp’s Anémic Cinéma (1926) features a series of hypnotic spinning discs, which he called ‘rotoreliefs’. For the film, the painted circular designs were captured spinning on a phonograph, giving them the illusion of depth. Throughout, these clockwise sequences trade off with counterclockwise-spinning sentences written in French. While, due to their use of pun and alliteration, these phrases are considered to be somewhat untranslatable into English, each is sexually suggestive or otherwise obscene.
The film is credited to Duchamp’s female alter ego Rrose Sélavy, with his frequent Dadaist collaborator Man Ray serving as cinematographer. Like much of Duchamp’s oeuvre, Anémic Cinéma is a peculiar and somewhat opaque provocation, hinting at symmetries or parallels between words and images in its composition and near-palindromic title. Originally released as a silent film, this 2K digital restoration features a score from the Indiana-based composer William Pearson, commissioned by Aeon.
Director: Marcel Duchamp
Digital restoration: Tamur Qutab
Restoration producer: Adam D’Arpino
Restoration composer: William Pearson
Restoration musicians: William Pearson, Conner Nicoson
video
Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes
video
Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
video
Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
14 minutes
video
Food and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
14 minutes
video
Art
Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer
17 minutes
video
Anthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 minutes
video
Metaphysics
What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?
55 minutes
video
Gender
A filmmaker responds to Lars von Trier’s call for a new muse with a unique application
16 minutes
video
Sports and games
Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play
5 minutes