“There were so many things I wanted to say, stream-of-consciousness things, designs and patterns while listening to music. I felt I might be able to say [them] if I had an unending canvas.” pioneering experimental animator Mary Ellen Bute
If ever I was born to write a piece, it’s this one: For Film Comment, I wrote about experimental animator Mary Ellen Bute, and her 1966 adaptation of James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake”. She was a pioneer. Way out in front.
As I wrote, a lot of her work is difficult to see – meaning, not accessible, holed up in archives – so you have to keep your eyes peeled for retrospectives of her work. But some of it is on YouTube, and you can get a sense of what she was about watching these shorts:
Synchromy No. 2 (1936)
Parabola (1937)
Synchromy No. 4 (1938)
Tarantella (1940)
Spook Sport (1940; collab. with Norman McLaren)
This one is funny!
Mary Ellen Bute
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
I can’t believe how early these animation shorts are. Very interesting, as I have never heard of her. Her work must have been an influence on Disney’s Fantasia. Bach’s Toccata in Fugue Minor was even in that movie!
Chris
I managed to catch a couple of those on Criterion Channel earlier this year, Spook Sport and Parabola. Pretty cool. I wish they’d get their hands on Finnegan’s Wake. For that matter I wish someone would put the film “version” of Ulysses onto physical media or even streaming platform, the one with the judge from The Verdict as Bloom (good ol’ whatsisname). It used to be (still is) on Youtube, but I was never able to make myself watch it on there, would prefer a proper display.
Okay I looked him up: Milo O’Shea, which I will now promptly forget, he’s one of those names that won’t stay in my head (Finlay Currie’s another, and Hugh Griffith another). Anyhoo, did you ever catch the film Ulysses? Any value in it, other than seeing what someone managed to make of that eminently text piece of work, as a piece of film?
I remember they showed up on Criterion – I was so excited!!
I’d FLIP if they put Finnegans Wake or released it. It’s kind of major – particularly because of Mary Ellen Bute – such a pioneer and not nearly as well known as she should be. It’s actually a great adaptation of a completely un-adaptable book.
I actually have seen Ulysses – sooo long ago though. and I think it was before I read the book so it was a fairly useless experience. My dad saw it when it first came out – he lived in Boston, steeped in Jesuit Catholic schooling – and the movie was banned all over the place. The scandal of the book continued. So he and a friend drove to Connecticut where it was playing so they could see it. always loved that story!