Ballet M%C3%A9canique

Ballet Mcanique 192324 is a Dadaist postCubist art film conceived, written, and codirected by the artist Fernand Lger in collaboration with the filmmaker Dudley Murphy with cinematographic input from Man Ray. It has a musical score by the American composer George Antheil. However, the film premiered in a silent version onSeptember 1924 at the Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik International Exposition for New Theater Technique in Vienna presented by Frederick Kiesler. It is considered one of the masterpieces of early experimental filmmaking.

Lgers experiences in World War I had a significant effect on all of his work. Mobilized in August 1914 for service in the French Army, he spent two years at the front in Argonne. He produced many sketches of artillery pieces, airplanes, and fellow soldiers while in the trenches, and painted Soldier with a Pipe 1916 while on furlough. In September 1916 he almost died after a mustard gas attack by the German troops at Verdun. During a period of convalescence in Villepinte he painted The Card Players 1917, a canvas whose robotlike, monstrous figures reflect the ambivalence of his experience of war. As he explained...I was stunned by the sight of the breech of a 75 millimeter in the sunlight. It was the magic of light on the white metal. Thats all it took for me to forget the abstract art of 19121913. The crudeness, variety, humor, and downright perfection of certain men around me, their precise sense of utilitarian reality and its application in the midst of the lifeanddeath drama we were in ... made me want to paint in slang with all its color and mobility. ........

Source: Wikipedia