Ballet mécanique is an exemplary film within the cinematic expression of the European avant-garde art movements. It consists of an exploration of modernist imagery, comprised of closeups, repetitions, oscillations, as well as unusual views of objects and people in motion, all edited together in a rapid and syncopated rhythm. The genesis of the film involved several key international figures in the history of art and culture, each of whom made their own individual conceptual and aesthetic contribution.

In the 1920s, avant-garde artists were proposing a form of experimentation that aimed to rupture the structures of film language. The experimental nature of Ballet mécanique even extended to George Antheil’s original musical score. A nitrate print preserved at EYE Filmmuseum (from which the print being screened stems) contains coloured inserts in blue, green, red and yellow. EYE’s nitrate print is one of only three surviving vintage first-generation elements, while most archives hold only black-and-white duplicates of earlier coloured prints.

Rossella Catanese

This print, found by the Nederlands Filmmuseum, has some parts hand colored by Lèger himself.