The beautiful and grotesque dreams of 1920s cinema continue to captivate audiences with their potent and timeless appeal. This creatively explosive period in moviemaking featured visionaries like Maya Deren, Luis Buñuel, and Salvador Dalí, who brought cinematic surreality to the masses. A new documentary, Gerald Fox's 'Kinaesthesia', meticulously unpacks this era, offering fresh insights into its enduring legacy.
The Shock and Awe of Early Surrealism
As legend recounts, the initial viewers of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's surrealist silent film Un Chien Andalou were left stunned with horror. Reports from 1929 at Paris's Studio des Ursulines cinema included stories of audience members fainting, alleged miscarriages, and numerous police complaints, primarily triggered by the film's infamous scene where a woman's eye—actually a calf's eye through clever editing—is sliced open. Nearly a century later, while reactions may be less extreme, the disconcerting magic of Buñuel and Dalí's work retains its power to unsettle and inspire.
Exploring Dreamscapes Through Silent Film
Kinaesthesia serves as an enthralling journey through the archives of silent cinema, focusing on films that plunged viewers into the depths of the human subconscious. It showcases iconic clips such as the endless staircases in Fernand Léger's Ballet mécanique (1924), the absurd horse race in Hou Yao's Romance of the Western Chamber (1927), and the chaotic, billowing curtains in Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). Director Gerald Fox explains, "There's a whole tradition of directors who've used dreamscapes in their films, and it hasn't stopped. But this was the birth of it—incredibly inventive young filmmakers making early experimental works to play with form and have fun."
Fox contrasts this era with modern filmmaking, noting that today's cinema often prioritizes character and script over the visual experimentation of the silent period. "David Lynch and Michel Gondry are exceptions, but it's rare now to see a film where form significantly contributes to its greatness," he remarks, adding with a laugh, "I don't want to sound pretentious, but many praised films today can be quite boring in their filmmaking approach."
The Concept of Kinaesthesia in Cinema
Serbian filmmaker Slavko Vorkapich described kinaesthesia in a cinematic context as a method to organize shots so viewers experience a unique, aesthetic melody in their bodies—akin to reality-bound REM sleep where perceptions are flipped, and the audience is blissfully adrift. Fox reflects on this, stating, "I question if there was ever a period of such utter creativity in cinema as the 1920s. While the 1960s had the French New Wave and the 1970s saw incredible American films, the sheer excitement of form in the 1920s remains unmatched, partly due to the freedoms of silent film."
He elaborates that the introduction of sound shifted focus back to narrative, reducing the impulse to abandon plot for pure creativity. "Sound took time to foster true originality again," Fox observes, highlighting how silent films allowed for unbridled ingenuity.
Honoring Film History Through 'Kinaesthesia'
The documentary is inspired by an essay on dreams in silent film by the late Harvard professor Vlada Petrić, portrayed on screen by actor Goran Kostić in scenes depicting him navigating swirling leaves and foggy waters. This artistic representation mirrors the trippy nature of the films discussed. Fox hopes Kinaesthesia will encourage younger audiences to explore these historical works, seeing beyond the crackle of film prints or occasional goofiness to appreciate the groundbreaking innovation that continues to thrill.
Kinaesthesia premieres at London's BFI Southbank on Friday, 17 April, accompanied by a weekend of films curated by Gerald Fox that showcase dreams in silent cinema.
