Anemic Cinema or Anémic Cinéma (1926) is a Dadaist, surrealist, or experimental film made by Marcel Duchamp. The film depicts whirling animated drawings -- which Duchamp called Rotoreliefs -- alternated with puns in French. Duchamp signed the film with his alter ego name of Rrose Sélavy.

Rotoreliefs were a phase of Duchamp's spinning works. To make the optical "play toys" he painted designs on flat cardboard circles and spun them on a phonograph turntable that when spinning the flat disks appeared 3-dimensional. He had a printer run off 500 sets of six of the designs and set up a booth at a 1935 Paris inventors' show to sell them. The venture was a financial disaster, but some optical scientists thought they might be of use in restoring 3-dimensional sight to people with one eye. ^[1] (Animated display of the Rotoreliefs)

In collaboration with Man Ray and Marc Allégret, Duchamp filmed early versions of the Rotoreliefs and they named the first film version Anémic Cinéma.

The Rotoreliefs are alternated with revolving disks with the following text in French, consisting of puns by Duchamp:

• "Avez-vous déjà mis la moëlle de l'épée dans le poêle de l'aimée?"
• "L'aspirant habite Javel et moi j'avais l'habite en spirale."
• "Bains de gros thé pour grains de beauté sans trop de bengué." (BenGay was invented in France by Dr. Jules Bengué)
• "L'enfant qui tète est un souffleur de chair chaude et n'aime pas le chou-fleur de serre-chaude."
• "Si je te donne un sou me donneras-tu une paire de ciseaux?"
• "On demande des moustiques domestiques (demi-stock) pour la cure d'azote sur la côte d'azur."
• "Parmi nos articles de quinquillerie par essence, nous recommandans le robinet qui s'arrête de couloir quand on ne l'ecoute pas."
• "Esquivons les ecchymoses des Esquimaux aux mots exquis."
• "Inceste ou passion a coups trop de famille, à coups trop tirés."

[edit] References

1. ^ Calvin Tomkins, Duchamp: A Biography (1996), pages 301-303.

[edit] See also

• Avant-Garde: Experimental Films of the 1920s and 1930s (DVD collection which includes Anemic Cinema)

[edit] External links

• Anemic Cinema at IMDB
• "Anemic Cinema" film and notes at No Narrative
• Film at Ubu website