Skip to Main Content

Off-Screen Cinema: Isidore Isou and the Lettrist Avant-Garde

Online ISBN:
9780226174624
Print ISBN:
9780226174457
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
Book

Off-Screen Cinema: Isidore Isou and the Lettrist Avant-Garde

Kaira M. Cabañas
Kaira M. Cabañas
Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro
Find on
Published:
26 January 2015
Online ISBN:
9780226174624
Print ISBN:
9780226174457
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press

Abstract

One of the most important avant-garde movements of postwar Paris was Lettrism, which crucially built an interest in the relationship between writing and image into projects in poetry, painting, and especially cinema. Highly influential, the Lettrists served as a bridge of sorts between the earlier works of the Dadaists and Surrealists and the later Conceptual artists. This is the first monograph in English of the Lettrists. Offering a full portrait of the avant-garde scene of 1950s Paris, it focuses on the film works of key Lettrist figures like Gil J Wolman, Maurice Lemaître, François Dufrêne, and especially the movement's founder, Isidore Isou, a Romanian immigrant whose “discrepant editing” deliberately uncoupled image and sound. Through the book's history, we see not only the full scope of the Lettrist project, but also its clear influence on Situationism, the French New Wave, the New Realists, as well as American filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close