Entr'acte

I watched Entr'acte (1924) during my first encounter with underground films, specifically in its avant-garde subgenre from the 1920s. This film, along with Buñuel-Dali's Un Chien Andalou (1927), immediately captivated me. Concurrently, I was studying Maya Dere's films, which inspired me to start creating my own underground/amateur/experimental short films between 2012 and 2015.

In Sheldon Renan's book on Underground Film, Entr'acte is considered one of the most impressive avant-garde films ever made. Renan labels it a "predecessor" of the underground film movement, which was then categorized as avant-garde. Entr'acte truly deserves this recognition because, considering the etymology of the term, it was undoubtedly a film ahead of its time. It stood apart from the mainstream Hollywood productions that dominated the era. René Clair, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamp were acutely aware of the offerings to the strict bourgeois elite in Paris during a ballet concert. In the interlude between acts, they courageously introduced surrealist and dadaist ideas in film, challenging the norms of the time. This act demonstrated that Europe, particularly France, could also pioneer something revolutionary in this art form, breaking away from the conventions of Hollywood and mainstream cinema.

I would like to point out a particular scene in Entr'acte that could be interpreted as a metaphor for this subtle opposition to mainstream Hollywood and commercial films. In this scene, a man in Entr'acte fires a bullet from a shotgun directly at a balloon, which releases a dove. This imagery serves as a metaphor for liberation from the rigidity of standards not only within hegemonic Hollywood but also in cinema at large. It symbolizes the beginning of a new era, marked by the freedom to experiment with various forms and aesthetics. This period reached its peak in the 1960s, embracing a wide range of films that, while diverse in aesthetics, shared the spirit of freedom to explore cinematic possibilities. These filmmakers and artists, along with their successors, played a crucial role in advancing film techniques, many of which were developed specifically for their unconventional creations.