Five Film Exercises: Film 4

Two boys go outside at night to capture a bird. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2003.

After becoming hypnotised Felix decides to try hypnotism himself. After he is successful a couple of times he decides to hypnotise his wife. The plan backfires and Felix is kicked out of his house again. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

A stop-motion animated account of the 1942 Battle of Guadalcanal in World War II. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2004.

An intoxicated man trespasses into an art gallery after hours.

Why do dogs bark at such innocent creatures as pigeons and squirrels... what are they afraid of? This film answers that eternal question. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

Diana Wilson’s mysteriously beautiful animated tableaux fluidly unfold before our eyes, a generous receptacle for the mournful, harrowing soundtrack, in which the filmmaker recounts a tragedy from her youth. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2011.

A village is ruled by the church, but is filled with hypocritical sinners who constantly spy on each other. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2008.

In a Medieval castle, a marauder tries to kidnap the twin infant sons of the lord. He makes off with only one, whom he drops about a mile away. A pig rescues this baby, so one brother grows up high on the hog, the other down with the swine; one is lazy, his lost brother is industrious. Years later, when a neighboring prince declares war, the brother in the castle is too soft to fight. Through happenstance, the twins are united just before the final battle. Will the upper-class brother let his humble sibling lead the troops to certain defeat and death? Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

When The Hand of God creates Adam, he must learn the ways of the world, and can only hope for company.

“CINDERELLA is a musical treatment of the fairy tale. I have broken apart the story and set it as a mechanical game with a series of repetitions where CINDERELLA is projected back and forth like a ping-pong ball between the hearth and the castle. She never succeeds in satisfying the requirements of the ‘Cinderella Game’. The film was shot MOS, the dialogue is lip-synched, and along with the out-front score and effects track magnifies the film’s sense of alienation.” — E.B. 1984 - Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2017.

After the title, a white screen gives way to a series of frames suggestive of abstract art, usually with one or two colors dominating and rapid change in the images. Two figures emerge from this jungle of color: the first, a shirtless man, appears twice, coming into focus, then disappearing behind the bursts and patterns of color, then reappearing; the second figure appears later, in the right foreground. This figure suggests someone older, someone of substance. The myth? Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Images of two women, two men, and a gray cat form a montage of rapid bits of movement. A woman is in a bedroom, another wears an apron: they work with their hands, occasionally looking up. A man enters a room, a woman smiles. He sits, another man sits and smokes. The cat stretches. There are close-ups of each. The light is dim; a filter accentuates red. A bare foot stands on a satin sheet. A woman disrobes. She pets the cat. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2006.

John Whitney's pioneering work of computer animation, Arabesque, from 1975. This flowing, abstract short film is a wonder to behold, a work of art. Like many other computer graphics pioneers, this film suggests roots in psychedelics and spiritual quests as much as engineering and mathematics. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

A being made of sand wakes up in the desert. It finds a bottle near him, but it's empty. The noise of dropping water can be heard not far away. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

"Marx was born in Queensland, Australia, and was a landscape painter and model there before moving to San Francisco. However, when she arrived, she found herself in the midst of fascinating non-objective painting and filmmaking activity. She was greatly influenced by the work of Harry Smith and Jordan Belson, and changed her own style to non-objective, receiving graphic inspiration from Jungian brain drawings, symbols in the occult sciences, and the design used by Eastern cultures, all of which being important elements in the San Francisco school mystical school of non-objective art." -Robert Pike, A Critical Study of the West Coast Experimental Film Movement. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.

Two little girls muse on marriage and babies, love and death as they create and act out plays in their backyard. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2006.

With magic inflatable objects that spring to life to fill his every need, a flippant beachgoer wants for nothing. Well... almost nothing.

Little Johnny Jones, to be born in the next year, is shown growing to a ripe, healthy old age, thanks to the efforts of his local public health officers. But without them, he might be one of the 5% or so that dies in the first year. The price for the public health service: about 3 cents a week. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

An elegant depiction of landscape and domestic space. One of two films based on David and Diana's life in their house in Colorado, which had just burned down. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2008.

Constantly changing forms, a plains landscape. One of two films based on David and Diana's life in their house in Colorado, which had just burned down. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2008.