Saturday, December 27, 2008

Rose Hobart (1936): by Joseph Cornell (Part 1/2) (Part 2 will follow tomorrow)

American artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) is best known for his evocative shadow boxes. He also made a number of short films. Rose Hobart was his first. The following description of the film accompanies the film on YouTube:

Joseph Cornell's "Rose Hobart" (1936) is a short, 19 minute experimental film created by the artist Joseph Cornell, who cut and re-edited the Hollywood film "East of Borneo" into one of America's most famous surrealist short films. Cornell was fascinated by the star of East of Borneo, an actress named Rose Hobart, and named his short film after her. The piece consists of snippets from East of Borneo combined with shots from a documentary of an eclipse. When Cornell screened the film, he projected it through a piece of blue glass and slowed the speed of projection to that of a silent film. The original soundtrack is removed, and the film is accompanied instead by "Forte Allegre" and "Belem Bayonne", two songs from Nestor Amaral's "Holiday in Brazil," a record that Cornell had found at a junk shop.