Hearse power

Some early experimental film today, in fact probably the earliest example of Surrealist cinema, made by René Clair in 1924.

Entr’acte was originally conceived to be  just that, i.e. a piece between two acts, in this case of a ballet called Relâche scored by Erik Satie, who also appears in the film. Among the other performers you may recognise the artists Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, as well as the composer Georges Auric, one of Les six. It premiered at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, at that time owned by our old pal Ganna Walska.

Naturally there’s nothing so gauche as a narrative on offer, but you do get a high-speed hearse chase, a rooftop chess match and some surprisingly demure up-skirt action:

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Tags: Erik Satie, Ganna Walska, Marcel Duchamp, René Clair