Gymnopedies

1966
Country: USA
Duration: 6 mins
Colour,
Sound: Sound
Ratio: 4:3
Available Format/s: 16mm
Original Format: 16mm film

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Animation. The theme is Weightlessness. Objects and characters are cut loose from habitual meanings, also from tensions and gravitational limitations. A lyric Eric Satie track accompanies the film. Such a portrait seems necessary from time to time to remind us that equilibrium and harmony are possible, and that we will not dissolve into a jelly if we allow ourselves to relax into them: A horseman rides through the landscape, through the town, but never arrives anywhere in particular. An acrobat swings on a rope above a canal in Venice, and is content just to swing there. Nothing threatens to disturb them. This film is a total contrast to the Kafka-like oddities of Eastern European animation.
‘It is impossible not to hallucinate on your own while watching it.’ – Lita Eliseu, East Village Other

More works by Lawrence Jordan

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