E-mail us: amdb@ucalgary.ca


Pipe Dreams

Date produced: 1933

Filmmaker(s):

Edward Atkins

Joseph Dephoure

Description:

"Pipe Dreams, by Joseph Dephoure, ACL, and Edward Atkins, ACL, is ranked among the year's ten best because of its considerable triumphs over dramatic and technical difficulties. Through the imagination of its producers, a small cast, simple settings and moderate footage have been used to tell a big story, rich in pictorial effect. Dreaming that he has murdered his unfaithful wife, a young man sees in prospect the swift and fearful course of his life to the waiting gallows. The murder, the trial, the death cell and the hanging are represented in large part only by the imaginative and striking use of shadows of the real scenes. Occasional straight shots are heightened in effect by unusual angles and dramatic lighting. Sensitively planned, smartly executed and deftly cut, Pipe Dreams makes its simple story exciting and forceful." Movie Makers, Dec. 1933, 500.


Popurrí de Superochos [Super 8 Potpourri]

Date produced: 1978

Filmmaker(s):

Maris Bustamante

Rubén Valencia

Description:

"Siete cortometrajes de Maris Bustamante y Rubén Valencia, integrantes del No Grupo, que indican el acercamiento de artistas plásticos al formato súper 8. Los trabajos del No-Grupo tendieron a hacer una reflexión a la vez lúdica y crítica sobre la naturaleza del arte" Superocheros.

"Seven short films made by Maris Bustamante and Rubén Valencia, members of the No Group, that indicate the interest of artists in the plastic arts to use the super 8 format. The works of the No Group were usually a playful and critical reflexion on the nature of art" Superocheros.


Superman Goes West

Date produced: 1943

Filmmaker(s):

Donald H. Kelly

Description:

"Donald H. Kelly has cast a comic strip character in Superman Goes West, integrating travel sequences and comedy with great success. While the magnificent cinematographic record of a Western trip is the most engaging factor of the film, the entertainment value of the Superman motif cannot be minimized. The fictional hero is shown to be the consuming interest of a small boy passenger on the trip. The lad proceeds to read Superman comics under varying conditions, despite a changing background of allegedly awe inspiring scenery. One dream sequence with a Superman flavor is a triumph of trick cinematography." Movie Makers, Dec. 1943, 478.


Tercer suspiro, El [The third sigh]

Date produced: 1970

Filmmaker(s):

Alfredo Gurrola

Description:

"EL TERCER SUSPIRO. Separa de un grupo de paseantes en la Alameda a un joven que al aceptar la invitación a subir a un auto que le hacen tres desconocidos (identificados con el movimiento revolucionario de 1910, mediante un montaje de fotografías de la época), durante el paseo por el Periférico se ve acometido por una serie de evocaciones imaginarias. Primero se le ve huir del coche saltando a un paso de peatones, y ser acosado a través de casas derruidas. Al regresar al tiempo presente uno de los hombres le pone la mano en un revólver. Después se ve en un lugar desierto, penosamente sostenido en pie por un aparato ortopédico, mientras una marea creciente lo empieza a cubrir. En ese punto desciende del coche en marcha y se coloca en el centro de la carretera, amenazando con el arma a algo que se aproxima; pero antes de que se produzca el disparo evoca un encuentro amoroso. Esta acción se repite varias veces antes de disolverse en las imágenes de un lago que ahora lo ha cubierto todo"(Garmendia en Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).

"THE THIRD SIGH. Separates a young man from a group of pedestrians in the Alameda, when he accepts an invitation by three unknown men to get into a car (the men were identified with the revolutionary movement of 1910 through a photographic montage of the time), during the ride through Periférico, he is undertaken by a series of imaginary evocations. First he is seen running away from the car, jumping to a crosswalk, and being harassed through demolished houses. When coming back to the present, one of the men puts his hand on a revolver gun. Afterwards, he is seen in a desert place, shamefully sustained by an orthopedic device, while a rising tide starts to cover him. At this point he descends from the moving car and goes to the center of the highway, menacing with his gun something that is approaching; but before the shot is produced, a loving encounter is evoked. This image is repeated several times before dissolving into images of a lake that has now covered everything" (Garmendia in Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).


Then He Woke Up

Date produced: 1938

Filmmaker(s):

J. Francis Brooks

Description:

A golfer is knocked out by a golf ball and dreams his friends are ballet dancers as well as other surreal incidents.


Traum Im Karneval

Date produced: 1931

Filmmaker(s):

Max Goldschmidt

Description:

"In Traum Im Karneval, 1000 ft., 35mm., a distinctly new technique in cine puppet drama has been beautifully and conclusively demonstrated. Working with puppets free of distracting threads and controlled entirely from below the line of camera sight, Dr. Goldschmidt has brought to his film the fluidity and cinematic smoothness essential to a genuine photoplay. Gone are the proscenium arch and the unavoidably static feeling of photographed "theatre." Here the camera has moved freely from near shot to closeup or semicloseup as the action demands. Inserted scenes from real life, used with symbolism significant to the mood of the story, have served only to heighten the cinematic illusion, while the unusually graceful miming of the puppets amazes one with a feeling of uncanny and fantastic life. Traum Im Karneval is delicately conceived, sensitively directed and superbly photographed. Of brilliance equal to Dr. Goldschmidt's technique was the unfailing mastery of his collaborator, Richard Teschner, eminent European puppeteer." Movie Makers, Dec. 1931, 685.


V-Ray Tube, The

Date produced: 1935

Filmmaker(s):

John Martin

Description:

A comedy about a man who, while under sedation at the dentist, dreams of a device that will make things disappear at will.


Total Pages: 4