Eaux d'Artifice (1953)
Director: Kenneth Anger; Assistant Camera Operator: Thad Lovett; Music: extracto from Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons – Production: Kenneth Anger – Country: United States – Running Time: 13’
Cast: Carmilla Salvatorelli (Lady)
The film:
"Eaux d’artifice develops around a character who wanders in a fountain garden, hiding and seeking in a nocturnal labyrinth. The film is basically the musical development of this 'hiding and seeking' and culminates with the person who seeks in the water of the fountains, becoming one with the water.
This suggests that the person who seeks as the protagonist of Fireworks* has found the light and has been transformed by the experience.
With the viewing of Eaux d’Artifice you will become aware of the artificiality of the film (and, implicitly, of all the films)."
* [http://www2.museocinema.it/restauri/sonori_restaurati.php?id=33&l=en]
[Robert A. Heller, Kenneth Anger in Paolo Bertetto (curated by), Il grande occhio della notte. Cinema d’Avanguardia Americano 1920-1990, Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Torino; Lindau, 1993, p. 84]
The film restoration:
The preservation of Eaux d’artifice was realized by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino starting from a 16mm positive copy held by the Museum, part of Kenneth Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle and acquired in 1992 by the director Kenneth Anger.
The preservation, aimed to print an internegative scene and sound with the successive synchronization of the image and sound, made possible the correction of the most evident signs of use of the original elements, the density of the image and, when necessary, of the color.
The work was conducted in 2010 by the laboratory Haghefilm Conservation B.V. Cineco in Amsterdam.
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