Steinberg

The text and video excerpt below document the book by Philippe Langlois, Les cloches d’Atlantis, musique électroacoustique et cinéma archéologie et histoire d’un art sonore, éditions mf, Paris, first quarter 2012.

A black-and-white animated film by Peter Kassovitz, father of Mathieu Kassovitz, made after the drawings of Saul Steinberg. From the draughtsman’s original gesture – a simple stroke of the pen – a long tracking shot unfolds, revealing the fertile and delirious graphic imagination of the famous American draughtsman. The city and the urban universe are omnipresent in it: suspension bridges, harbour activities, power stations, public transport, multiplied and juxtaposed architecture, referring to a veritable mental geography which places man back at the heart of a reflection on the city in this immense humorous fresco.

Part of the “Banc d’essai” series, this film is representative of the broad field of production that characterises the films of the Service de la Recherche, opening itself this time to the universe of the New York draughtsman Saul Steinberg, famous in the United States for his satirical drawings published in “Dessins”, “Passeport”, “Art of living” and in “The New-Yorker”. Beyond drawing, the film also opens onto Steinberg’s calligraphic research, in which writing also takes on the value of drawing, notably in the opening credits, which stage improbable signatures at the various posts of the film.
The electroacoustic music of Bernard Parmegiani takes the side of illustration, adding sound effects, not without humour either and as close as possible to the image and the editing, a figuration of the image through the movement of forms within the frame.
This film received the CNC quality mention in 1964.
Production: Service de la recherche, 1964
Music by Bernard Parmegiani

This information notice was co-produced with INA/GRM for the creation of the multimedia fresco – Artsonores – L’aventure électroacoustique, in the category Films produced by the Service de la Recherche de l’ORTF from 1950 to 1975.