In Thème et variations, the arabesque reappears via the theme of the dancer. Dulac’s notes reveal that she organized the film based on the classical musical structure of verse and refrain, or as she states “theme…variations…reprise of a theme”. In keeping with the film’s preliminary title “Visual theme – Cinegraphic variation”, Dulac takes dance as her central theme, and effectuates a series of comparisons and contrasts, or variations, between the dancer (as line and form), nature, and the machine. The dancer, who combines movement and rhythm in a real-life form (unlike the painterly films of Viking Eggeling and Hans Richter), epitomizes Dulac’s conception of pure cinema.

Tami Williams