Ballet Mechanique

Filmmaker: Fernand Léger

Experimental Film: Ballet Mechanique

Year: 1924

The main purpose of this Experimental film by Fernand Léger was to show his passion for ballet, by not demonstrated by humans, but rather various mechanical objects juxtaposed with different sounds. He supported this with various related ballet visuals such as pianos, propellers and various other objects rotating in a circular motion to represent a ballerina turning around.

The colour of the piece plays around with different shades of black and white and some shots are more over exposed than others. Particular in a few shots of a face which is shown from left, right and centered.

The piece as a whole continues this "spinning theme" all the objects that we are shown are moving in a circular motion, or backwards and forwards like the woman on the swing, again these can all be linked into the movements within ballet, hence the name "ballet mechanqiue". The mechanic bit is shown when various pieces of metal piping/instruments etc are shown, again moving in a motion which links the title of the piece together.

Overall, I did enjoy the piece and I really liked the repetition. My favourite part however wasn't the images shown, but it was the music that accompanied them. It was a cross between out of tune pianos along with high pitch violins, which to me are usually associated with horrorand thriller soundtracks, but having not seen any Experimental work before, I didn't have any idea what to expect.

After watching this it has given myself and my group a few ideas as to what we would like to achieve in our piece: Creepy/weird music (but not scary) along with a black and white piece of footage which is repeated in various ways, whether be the angle of the camera, the exposure of the shot or the motion it can be rotated in.