So last night after our opening I happened to tune into the 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Fredric March on TCM, and it costarred Rose Hobart as Dr. Jekylls love interest (not to be confused with Miriam Hopkins as Mr. Hydes lust interest, one of the most erotic turns by an actress in early sound cinema, especially considering Hollywoods Hays Code was imposed the same year the film came out). And I said to myself, Hey, Rose Hobart is the title of a cut-up/collage film by Joseph Cornell, one of my favorite artists; I wonder if thats on YouTube? And it is: Rose Hobart (1936) is a 19-minute experimental collage film created by the artist Joseph Cornell, who cut and re-edited the Universal film East of Borneo (1931) into one of Americas most famous surrealist short films. Cornell was fascinated by the star of East of Borneo, an actress named Rose Hobart, and named his short film after her. The piece consists of snippets from East of Borneo combined with shots from a documentary film of an eclipse. By chance, Cornell bought a 16mm print of East of Borneo at a junk shop. To make the 77-minute film less tedious from repeated viewings by himself and his brother, Cornell would occasionally cut some parts, rearrange others, or add pieces of nature films, until it was condensed to its final-length of 19 minutes, mostly featuring shots of the lead actress, with whom Cornell had become obsessed. When Cornell screened the film, he projected it through a piece of blue glass and slowed the speed of projection to that of a silent film. Cornell removed the original soundtrack and added Porte Alegre and Belem Bayonne, two songs from Nestor Amarals album Holiday in Brazil, a record that Cornell had also found at a junk shop. The film was first shown in 1936 at Julien Levys New York City gallery in a matinee program featuring short films from Cornells collection. The program, which Levy called Goofy Newsreels, took place around the same time as the first exhibition of surrealist art at the Museum of Modern Art. Salvador Dalí was in the audience, but halfway through the film, he knocked over the projector in a rage. My idea for a film is exactly that, and I was going to propose it to someone who would pay to have it made, he said. I never wrote it down or told anyone, but it is as if he had stolen it. Other versions of Dalís accusation tend to the more poetic: He stole it from my subconscious! or even He stole my dreams! After the Dalí incident, Cornell did not show the film again until the 1960s, when, at the behest of Jonas Mekas, it was screened again for a public audience. When the first print was made from Cornells original in 1969, Cornell chose a rose tint instead of the normal blue. This one is blue.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 19:08:34 +0000