La coquille et le clergyman (1928)'s comments

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beeswax

This film is apparently meaningless but if it has any meaning it is doubtless objectionable
BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CENSORS ON The Seashell and the Clergyman

12 years 7 months ago

quattuor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypseXIQVaF0

3 years 1 month ago

DiscLand has the film on a DVD anthology of surreal cinema part 1 at 28 minutes. IMDB used to show it at 28 minutes but now shows a restored version at 41 minutes. Obviously, there are multiple versions of this film but 28 minutes seems to be the most common version.

11 years 1 month ago

CMT

You can also find it in Avante-Garde Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and '30s.

10 years 2 months ago

Nine99

I'll upload the full version later.

12 years 4 months ago

KatForsyth

The three parts at the youtube link below only add up to 29 minutes, but imdb says 41 minutes. Are we seeing the full version?

12 years 7 months ago

wowwee123

https://vimeo.com/44275775

5 years 11 months ago

AdGuzman

I stumbled upon this on Wikipedia:

quote:
The British Board of Film Censors famously reported that the film was "so cryptic as to be almost meaningless. If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable"

I wonder if the fact that this was the work of a female director influenced people of that time to dismiss the importance of this particular piece.

Just with a little research we can find Dulac's political views about gender, thus for me is quite clear the intention behind this film, and perhaps we can have second guesses about the symbols used in it, but her questioning the church, the state and male sexuality and the positioning of women at that time was groundbreaking. Which is sad, because if not but that huge dismissal, this could be catalogued easily as the very first surrealist film of all times, BEFORE Buñuel-Dalí's 'A Chien Andalou' and don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, but even Buñuel stated that he didn't put any meaning behind it, it was just a dream put into film so why the double standard?

Loved the ideas behind The Seashell and the Clergyman, it was great to bump into this film, for it was an amusing discovery!

6 years 3 months ago

WalterNeff

Here is a 31 minute version http://www.openculture.com/2011/07/the_seashell_and_the_clergyman_the_worlds_first_surrealist_film.html

11 years 9 months ago