Surrealism, Cinema, and the Search for a New Myth

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Kristoffer Noheden

   Pages 1-29

3. The Artist-Magician as Filmmaker: Wilhelm Freddie’s Films and the New Myth

   • Kristoffer Noheden

   Pages 31-74

4. Initiation into the New Myth: Primitivism and Poetics in the Surrealist Documentary Film

   • Kristoffer Noheden

   Pages 75-116

5. Surrealism Is What Will Be: Nelly Kaplan’s Myths of Revenge

   • Kristoffer Noheden

   Pages 117-157

6. Magic Art and Minor Myths: Jan Švankmajer’s Transmutation of Material Reality

   • Kristoffer Noheden

   Pages 159-216

7. Concluding Remarks

   • Kristoffer Noheden

   Pages 217-222

8. Back Matter

   Pages 223-261

   PDF

This book examines post-war surrealist cinema in relation to surrealism’s change in direction towards myth and magic following World War II. Intermedial and interdisciplinary, the book unites cinema studies with art history and the study of Western esotericism, closely engaging with a wide range of primary sources, including surrealist journals, art, exhibitions, and writings. Kristoffer Noheden looks to the Danish surrealist artist Wilhelm Freddie’s forays into the experimental short film, the French poet Benjamin Péret’s contribution to the documentary film L’Invention du monde, the Argentinean-born filmmaker Nelly Kaplan’s feature films, and the Czech animator Jan Svankmajer’s work in short and feature films. The book traces a continuous engagement with myth and magic throughout these films, uncovering a previously unknown strain of occult imagery in surrealist cinema. It broadens the scope of the study of not only surrealist cinema, but of surrealism across the art forms.Surrealism, Cinema, and the Search for a New Myth will appeal to film scholars, art historians, and those interested in the impact of occultism on modern culture, film, and the arts.

• Surrealist Cinema
• Post-war Cinema
• Occultism
• Esotericism
• Primitivism

“This is one of the most significant books written on Surrealism and cinema due partly to the fearless manner by which it journeys towards hitherto unjustifiably neglected realms of the Surrealist filmography, but also the way it makes this journey thoroughly equipped methodologically for the challenges it faces. It is a wide-ranging achievement of original thought, concentrated research and precise exposition that should be read by all those with an interest in film and Surrealism.” (Gavin Parkinson, Senior Lecturer in European Modernism, The Courtauld Institute of Art, UK, and author of Futures of Surrealism: Myth, Science Fiction and Fantastic Art in France 1936–1969)

• Department of Media Studies, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

  Kristoffer Noheden

Kristoffer Noheden is a researcher in the Department of Media Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden.

Policies and ethics