Rabbit's Moon (1950)
Director: Kenneth Anger; Camera Operator: Tourjansky; Music: Andy Arthur (versione 1979) – Story: Kenneth Anger – Costumes by: Kenneth Anger - Production: Kenneth Anger – Country: United States – Running Time: 16’ (1972) / 7’ (1979)
Cast: André Soubeyran (Pierrot); Claude Revenant (Harlequin); Nadine Valence (Columbine)
The film:
"Three years after Fireworks*, K. Anger was in Paris, where, in the film Rabbit’s Moon he used cinema as another magical instrument. Here the magic lantern creates “an image” of the effect of Pierrot; Harlequin, though, steals his girlfriend Colombina, and the unlucky Pierrot finds himself alone under the gaze of the moon which looks at him ruthlessly."
* [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. 83]
Kenneth Anger shot Rabbit’s Moon in Paris in 1950. The first version of the film, 16 minutes long with a pop soundtrack, was distributed only in 1972. A shorter second version, 7 minutes long, with the music of Andy Arthur came out in 1979.
The Museo Nazionale del Cinema conserves both the versions of the film; the 1979 version is inserted in the anthology “Kenneth Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle”.
The film restoration:
The preservation of the two version of Rabbit’s Moon was realized by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino starting from a 16mm positive prints held by the Museum 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.
|
