Ed Emshwiller - Lifelines Collection ( Dance Chromatic / Transformation / Lifelines / Thanatopsis / Totem / George Dumpson's Place / Relativity / Carol / Film with Three Dancers )

Ed Emshwiller - Lifelines Collection (DVD) (*)

$30.99

Original Title: Dance Chromatic / Transformation / Lifelines / Thanatopsis / Totem / George Dumpson's Place / Relativity / Carol / Film with Three Dancers
Language Selections:
English ( Mono )
French ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
109 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Booklet

Movie filmed in 1959-1971 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Ed Emshwiller

Actors:
Barbara Kersey
Bob Beswick
Carolyn Carlson
Stoney Emshwiller
Emery Hermans
Becky Arnold
Mac Emshwiller
Gladys Ballin
Murray Louis
Susan Emshwiller
Carol Emshwiller

Synopsis:

Dance Chromatic. Transformation: An experimental animation film of the process of abstract painting set to free-form Jazz music. Lifelines: Filmmaker Emshwiller combined the movements of a live model with animated drawings. Thanatopsis: Introducing some innovative film techniques, Emshwiller won a Special Award at the Brussels Experimental Film Festival for this expression of internal anguish. He described the film as "The confrontation of a man and his torment. Juxtaposed against his external composure are images of a woman and lights in distortion, with tension heightened by the sounds of power saws and a heartbeat." Totem: Ed Emshwiller described this collaboration with composer-choreographer Alwin Nikolais: "A filmic interpretation of a modern dance ballet by Alwin Nikolais. Earth, fire, water and primordial mysteries in a cine-dance." George Dumpson's Place: Employing experimental techniques, Emshwiller magically moved through a collection of objects and artifacts in order to capture the spirit of George Dumpson and his backyard museum, as he noted: "George Dumpson was a scavenger. He created a small universe with what he found and could carry on his homemade wagon. To me he epitomized the soul of the artist. He put together what things he could in such a way as to satisfy some inner need, just as I had to make this picture of him and his place." Relativity: Emshwiller made this film on a Ford Foundation grant, and in his original proposal to the Ford Foundation, he outlined the film as "something that deals with subjective reality, the emotional sense of what one's perception of the total environment is -- sexual, physical, social, time, space, life, death." Carol: This 16mm Abstract Movie by the Ed Emshwiller is a masterful piece of Pure Cinema. It's wonderfully conceived, beautifully shot, tightly and lovingly edited and put together with a poignant gentle musical score. The optic/in-camera mechanical celluloid visual effects are emotionally Cinematic. This is a visual tone poem, a romantic poetic Love Letter to the movie maker's wife, Carol Emshwiller. The visual textures of the tree barks and the leaves on the branches being gently blown in the wind being double-exposed with the visual texture of Carol's facial skin is sensually pleasurable and expressive. The movie's pacing from a gentle slow rhythm to a kinetic and kinesthetic visual cascade of flashing and flickering colors and explosive motion and bright lights contrasting with dark shadows and shapes in super fast alternating spirals and bursts is exhilarating visceral emotionally intense cinema. Film with Three Dancers: A trio of dancers (Carolyn Carlson, Emery Hermans, Bob Beswick) appear "first in leotards, then in bluejeans, then naked, as they "pass through rituals of movement."

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 19 May, 2026.