"Expression of the evolution of man out of suffering seen through the use of animated portraits, decaying clay sculptures and various optical effects." Chicago Film Archives
"Alexander Black imagines his grandchildren appearing around him in a swirl of double-exposed trick cinematography." UC Berkeley Library.
"In 1921, Sheeler and Strand collaborated to make Manhatta, considered to be the first American avant-garde film. Inspired by Walt Whitman's poem "Mannahatta," which is quoted in one of the intertitles, the film portrays life in New York City in sixty-five nonnarrative shots. The sequences display one epic day in Lower Manhattan, beginning with a ferry approaching the city in early morning and ending with a sunset view from a skyscraper. Shot from extreme camera angles, the film captures the dynamic qualities of the new metropolis" Museum of Modern Art (New York), Department of Film.
"doc. a fantasia"/avant-garde documentary
"Quizá para dejar claro que abordaba el tema desde un punto de vista artístico, la película comienza con imágenes de erotismo en las artes plásticas (Picasso y Fiona Alexander, principalmente) para relatar la historia de un hombre (Salvador Garcini) que se acerca sensualmente a su amada (Tina Romero) y descubre que tiene una vagina dentada, cosa que lo desorienta y conflictúa. Es curioso que a diferencia del poema de Neruda en el que se había inspirado, la película no mostraba el ejercicio de una sexualidad plena y consumada, sino precisamente de los miedos a ella.
El joven vaga atormentado por las calles de la ciudad. Acude con una especie de gurú (Juan José Gurrola), que interpreta música neuroatonal en un teclado eléctrico, mientras resuena el poema de Neruda. A partir de esto el joven recupera sus fuerzas y recibe una suerte de inciación sexual con una mujer de vestido blanco en la pirámide de Cuicuilco para finalmente volver, todo complejo superado, a la mujer del principio" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012)
"Maybe to make it clear that the topic was addressed from an artistic perspective, the film begins with erotic images from plastic arts (mainly Picasso and Fiona Alexander) to tell the story of a man (Salvador Garcini) that approaches sensually his loved one (Tina Romero) and discovers that she has a Vagina Dentata, which disorients and conflicts him. It is curious that unlike the Neruda poem it is inspired by, the film doesn't show a free and consummated sexuality, but the fears associated with it.
The tormented man wanders the streets of the city. He goes to a sort of spiritual guru (Juan José Gurrola), that interprets neuro-atonal music in an electric keyboard, while Neruda's poem sounds in the background. From this point the young man regains his strength and receives a sort of sexual initiation with a woman dressed in white in the pyramid of Cuicuilco to finally come back, all complexes aside, to the woman of the beginning" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012)
"The third in Steiner’s trilogy of abstract films, Mechanical Principles (1930), is fascinating and more striking than Surf and Seaweed. It is composed of close-up shots of mechanical gears of different kinds in motion; rather than an examination of a single machine, it is an examination of the different kinds of motion produced by machines. Mechanical Principles emphasizes the tension in such machinery between the constancy of force and repetition on the one hand and the irregularity of shapes, sizes, and motions on the other, " Tepperman, 203.
"Avant-garde surreal film investigating pessimism (embodied by a grey man who tries to commit suicide) and optimism (represented by a joyful young woman and her two children)." (EAFA Database).
"Meshes of the Afternoon is experimental in nature and exciting in its cinematic development. In it, the producers — Maya Deren and her husband. Alexander Hamid — have been concerned with the inner experiences of an individual. Although one sees on the screen the familiar backgrounds and impedimenta of physical existence, the events which transpire among them, through a summer's afternoon, portray subjective feeling rather than objective incident. Miss Deren's creative use of her camera to suggest these emotions blazes new and stimulating trails in pure cinematography." Movie Makers, Dec. 1945, 497.
"Newell Tune's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' has some outstanding photography in which distortion lens attachments were used for some fantastic effects." American Cinematographer, May 1952, 224.
"doc. a fantasia"/avant-garde documentary
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Amateur Cinema