Loading
French Avant-GardeFilm 14 of 18
The Seashell and the Clergyman
La Coquille et le Clergyman
- Year
- Country
- Runtime
- Language
- Director
Your rating
Germaine Dulac, 1928, scenario by Antonin Artaud. A clergyman (Alex Allin) is consumed by the wife of a general; doors, a seashell, a key, a city that will not stay still. Artaud disowned the result; at the premiere his friends shouted Dulac down. The British Board of Film Censors, 13 November 1929, rejected it as so cryptic as to be almost meaningless, adding that if there is a meaning it is doubtless objectionable. About forty minutes. CNC restorations keep the film the surrealists tried to talk over.
In two programmes
The seashell. Artaud wrote it, Dulac shot it, Artaud disowned it, and his friends shouted her down at the premiere. The British censor called it meaningless and, if it had a meaning, objectionable. A clergyman, a general's wife, doors, a key. A year before the razor.
Women Pioneers of Silent Cinema
Germaine Dulac directed Antonin Artaud's scenario and then had to live with him disowning the result after the premiere, where his friends shouted her down. The British Board of Film Censors, 13 November 1929, rejected the picture as so cryptic as to be almost meaningless, adding that if there is a meaning it is doubtless objectionable. Later CNC work is what keeps her cut in circulation. She held the scissors on a forty-minute film the surrealists tried to talk over; Alex Allin plays the clergyman, and the archive kept Dulac's name on the picture.
Cast & crew
Loading films
