Entr’acte **** (1924, Erik Satie, Francis Picabia, René Clair, Jean Börlin) – Classic Movie Review 12,575

Erik Satie, Francis Picabia, René Clair, and Jean Börlin in Entr’acte.

René Clair’s famous classic French avant-garde comedy short film (his second work as director, made at the age 26), designed to be screened in the middle of the acts (entr’acte) of a Dadaist ballet called Relâche, proceeds in a series of pioneering, eye-catching Surrealist images.

Entr’acte is witty, funny surreal tomfoolery about crazy people bizarrely chasing around Paris after a hearse. Clair shot it in three weeks as a tribute to silent comedians like Charles Chaplin.

Talk about inventive: the film encompasses people running in slow motion, things happening in reverse, looking at a ballet dancer from underneath, watching an egg over a fountain of water get shot and become a bird, and people disappearing. All of them are pointlessly inventive, which is the whole point.

It premiered on 4 December 1924 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris as a prologue and entr’acte for the Ballets Suédois production of Relâche, based on a book by Francis Picabia.

The music for both the ballet and the film is composed by Erik Satie.

Entr’acte is directed by René Clair, runs 22 minutes, is made by Ballets Suédois, is released by Société Nouvelle des Acacias, is written by René Clair and Francis Picabia, is shot in black and white by Jimmy Berliet, is produced by Rolf de Maré, and is scored by Erik Satie.

The cast includes Jean Börlin (artistic director of the Ballets Suédois), Inge Fries, Francis Picabia, Erik Satie, Man Ray, Georges Auric, Marcel Archard, Marcel Duchamp, Georges Charensol, Rolf de Maré, and René Clair.

The film is on the Criterion Collection DVD of Clair’s À Nous la Liberté (1931).

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,575

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