Diary of a Sane Man

You can watch this film with your eyes closed, doze off if you like, without losing its frayed narrative thread, its patchwork visual lines. Shot randomly and simultaneously on Super 8 and 35mm, this is a kind of feature-length promo for Bach’s Goldberg Variations, parts of the Cello Suites and Busoni’s “remix” of Bach’s famous Chaconne (the one beginning Ta, tata ta… tata ta!). Sound and image are orchestrated by Antonin Artaud, who appears & disappears as nun, psychoanalyst and home-movie maker. The plot thins out into nothing through a series of mythological digressions: a filmmaker pitches an idea for a movie about Aphrodite to a production committee but is thrown out the window and lands in a stream where his movie is being made. (Variety didn’t get the joke.)