Len Lye

6

Secrets of British Animation

Nov 19, 2018

Secrets of British Animation

2018 60 min 1 vues

BBC Four’s new documentary takes us on a journey through more than a century of animation. It examines the creative and technical inventiveness of some of the great animation pioneers who have worked in Britain – trailblazing talents such as Len Lye, John Halas and Joy Batchelor, Joanna Quinn, and Bristol’s world-conquering Aardman Animations.

Documentary

1

Doodlin': Impressions Of Len Lye

Jan 01, 1987

Doodlin': Impressions Of Len Lye

1987 52 min 1 vues

This documentary, made seven years after the death of legendary filmmaker and kinetic artist Len Lye, tells Lye's story: from being a young boy staring at the sun, to travels around the Pacific and life in New York. It includes excerpts from many of his films, and interviews with second wife Ann and biographer Roger Horrocks. Len Lye himself is often heard, outlining his ideas of the ‘old brain’ and how Māori and Aboriginal art influenced his work. The grandeur of his ideas are only matched by their scale, with steel sculptures designed to be "at least 20 foot high".

Documentary

1

Art of the Sixties

Jan 01, 1967

Art of the Sixties

1967 30 min 1 vues

This film documents the major directions in modern American art during the first seven years of the 1960s. The keynote is that the artist has expanded his realm from the two-dimentional picture frame, climaxed by the artists of the 40s and early 50s, merged color with sculpture, and sought out modern media to express himself. This has produced the characteristic wide spectrum of interest, ideas, and products in contemporary art.

Documentary

8

Abstract Cinema

Jun 24, 1993

Abstract Cinema

1993 52 min 1 vues

Several well-known and pioneering abstract filmmakers discuss the history of non-objective cinema, the works of those that came before them and their own experiments in the field of visionary filmmaking.

TV Movie

1

Flip & Two Twisters

Jun 01, 1995

Flip & Two Twisters

1995 46 min 1 vues

Documentary about the Kiwi artist Len Lye and his legacy.

1

Fountain of Hope/Peace

Jan 01, 1959

Fountain of Hope/Peace

1959 2 min 1 vues

In 1959 the United Nations commissioned Lye to make this one-minute film, “Fountain of Hope,” to publicize United Nations Day (24th October). The film was screened worldwide in cinemas and on television. Lye superimposed the word for “peace” in many different languages over some of his kinetic sculptures, while a United Nations choir sang related music by Henry Brant that combined many national styles. Lye’s work was selected because the United Nations wanted to overcome language barriers, using visual images with a strong emotional impact and “universal appeal”. Lye was delighted to be associated with a message of world peace.

6.128

Rainbow Dance

Oct 01, 1936

Rainbow Dance

1936 4 min 47 vues

Rainbow Dance is a 1936 British animated film released by the GPO Film Unit. This is Lye's second film. It uses the Gasparcolor process.

Music

5.9

Trade Tattoo

Sep 01, 1937

Trade Tattoo

1937 5 min 28 vues

Rainbow Dance is a 1936 British animated film released by the GPO Film Unit. This is Lye's second film. It uses the Gasparcolor process.

Animation

6

A Colour Box

Jan 01, 1935

A Colour Box

1935 3 min 52 vues

Rainbow Dance is a 1936 British animated film released by the GPO Film Unit. This is Lye's second film. It uses the Gasparcolor process.

Animation

5.9

Free Radicals

Apr 23, 1958

Free Radicals

1958 5 min 65 vues

In this powerful abstract film with a soundtrack of African drum music, Lye scratched "white ziggle-zag-splutter scratches" on to black leader, using a variety of tools from saw teeth to arrow heads. The first version of the film won a major award at the International Experimental Film Festival Held in Brussels in 1958 in association with the World's Fair. Stan Brakhage described the film as "an almost unbelievably immense masterpiece".

Animation

5.727

Tusalava

Dec 01, 1929

Tusalava

1929 9 min 22 vues

With the screen split asymmetrically, one part in positive, the other negative, the film documents the evolution of simple celled organic forms into chains of cells then more complex images from tribal cultures and contemporary modernist concepts. The images react, interpenetrate, perhaps attack, absorb and separate, until a final symbiosis (or redemption?) is achieved.

Animation

1

Ariel’s Song / Full Fathom Five

Jan 01, 1953

Ariel’s Song / Full Fathom Five

1953 2 min 1 vues

Len Lye made this experiment in animating poetry circa 1953 utilising a clip of Sir John Gielgud reciting a passage from The Tempest.

1

Pictures for Percussion

Jan 01, 1958

Pictures for Percussion

1958 2 min 1 vues

Len Lye made Pictures for Percussion as a sample for television stations while living in the United States.

5.611

Color Cry

Nov 07, 1952

Color Cry

1952 3 min 9 vues

In 1944 Lye moved to New York City, initially to direct for the documentary newsreel The March of Time. He settled in the West Village, where he mixed with artists who later became the Abstract Expressionists, encouraged New York’s emerging filmmakers such as Francis Lee, taught with Hans Richter, and assisted Ian Hugo on Bells of Atlantis. Color Cry was based on a development of the “rayogram” or “shadow cast” process, using fabrics as stencils, with the images synchronized to a haunting blues song by Sonny Terry, which Lye imagined to be the anguished cry of a runaway slave. —Harvard Film Archive

Animation

6.2

Kaleidoscope

Jan 01, 1935

Kaleidoscope

1935 4 min 12 vues

For Kaleidoscope, which was sponsored by Churchman Cigarettes, Lye animated stenciled cigarette shapes and is said to have experimented by cutting out some of the shapes so that the light of the projector hit the screen directly. As in Colour Box Lye uses music by Don Baretto and his Cuban Orchestra. - Harvard Film Archive

Animation

6.818

The Birth of the Robot

Oct 01, 1936

The Birth of the Robot

1936 6 min 11 vues

This experiment was a “prestige advertisement” for Shell Motor Oil. As conventional animation became dominated by Walt Disney, many European filmmakers turned to puppets as an alternative, and Lye enlisted the help of avant-garde friends such as Humphrey Jennings and John Banting to make the amusing puppets. Exploring the still-complex color process, which involved the combination of three separate images, Lye creates such a vivid storm scene that reviewers hailed it as “proof that the color film has entered a new stage.” The music is Holst’s The Planets. - Harvard Film Archive

Animation

6.6

Colour Flight

Jan 01, 1937

Colour Flight

1937 4 min 15 vues

This riot of color was a showcase for Lye’s hand-painted and stenciled imagery. Sponsored by Imperial Airways, it incorporates the airline’s “speedbird” symbol, and the music consists of “Honolulu Blues” by Red Nichols and a rumba by the Lecuona Cuban Boys. Time Magazine raved about the film, describing Lye as England’s alternative to Walt Disney (a David-and-Goliath comparison!). Like Lye’s other films, Colour Flight was not eligible for distribution in the US due to its status as an overseas advertising film. - Harvard Film Archive

Animation

5.8

Basculement de la Lambeth Walk

Feb 01, 1940

Basculement de la Lambeth Walk

1940 4 min 19 vues

This riot of color was a showcase for Lye’s hand-painted and stenciled imagery. Sponsored by Imperial Airways, it incorporates the airline’s “speedbird” symbol, and the music consists of “Honolulu Blues” by Red Nichols and a rumba by the Lecuona Cuban Boys. Time Magazine raved about the film, describing Lye as England’s alternative to Walt Disney (a David-and-Goliath comparison!). Like Lye’s other films, Colour Flight was not eligible for distribution in the US due to its status as an overseas advertising film. - Harvard Film Archive

Music

6.115

Rhythm

Jan 01, 1957

Rhythm

1957 1 min 26 vues

Intended as a publicity film for Chrysler, Rhythm uses rapid editing to speed up the assembly of a car, synchronizing it to African drum music. The sponsor was horrified by the music and suspicious of the way a worker was shown winking at the camera; although Rhythm won first prize at a New York advertising festival, it was disqualified because Chrysler had never given it a television screening. P. Adams Sitney wrote, “Although his reputation has been sustained by the invention of direct painting on film, Lye deserves equal credit as one of the great masters of montage.” And in Film Culture, Jonas Mekas said to Peter Kubelka, “Have you seen Len Lye’s 50-second automobile commercial? Nothing happens there…except that it’s filled with some kind of secret action of cinema.” - Harvard Film Archive

Documentary

6

Particles in Space

Jan 01, 1980

Particles in Space

1980 4 min 5 vues

Lye completed his last great film a few months before his death at the age of 78. The film returned to the black-and-white techniques of Free Radicals. Lye created what he called “vibrant little images” or “zig-zags” with a sense of “zizz”. The clusters of small scratches gave the film a unique texture – the images looked rough but were in fact extremely subtle. The title Particles in Space referred to flashes of energy of the kind sometimes seen by astronauts in space. The soundtrack combined “Jumping Dance Drums” from the Bahamas with drum music by the Yoruba of Nigeria and the sounds of Lye’s metal kinetic sculptures. The opening titles demonstrated Lye’s mastery of the scratching of letters and words on film, a method imitated by other film-makers such as Stan Brakhage.

Animation

6.2

Tal Farlow

Jan 01, 1981

Tal Farlow

1981 2 min 5 vues

Lye created a series of scratched images in the 1950s – more regular or geometric than his usual style – to accompany Rock ‘n’ Rye, a track by jazz guitarist Tal Farlow, but he did not get far with the editing. He returned to the material in 1980 but died before it was completed. His assistant Steven Jones finished the film under the supervision of Lye’s widow Ann, who had been closely involved with all of Lye’s American films. - Harvard Film Archive

Animation

6.2

N or NW

Feb 05, 1938

N or NW

1938 8 min 4 vues

Correspondence between young lovers nearly ends in disaster through a mistake in postal district. Fortunately the GPO spots the error and all ends well, but with the moral that correspondents should get the address right.

Comedy

6.6

Experimental Animation

Jan 01, 1933

Experimental Animation

1933 3 min 12 vues

Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a two-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.

Music

5.2

Cameramen at War

Jan 01, 1943

Cameramen at War

1943 14 min 5 vues

A tribute to the cameramen of the newsreel companies and the service film units, in the form of a compilation of film of the cameramen themselves, their training and some of their most dramatic film.

Documentary

4.5

All Souls Carnival

Mar 03, 1957

All Souls Carnival

1957 13 min 2 vues

Len Lye usually timed his films with great care to match their soundtracks, but for All Souls Carnival, he and composer Henry Brant worked separately, preferring to see if the score and visual track would synchronise by chance. Lye also experimented with a new Direct Film technique, drenching the filmstrip in colourful paint and marker pen.

Music

4.667

Musical Poster #1

Oct 05, 1942

Musical Poster #1

1942 3 min 3 vues

A British WWII propaganda short warning citizens that Nazi sympathizers could be listening to their everyday conversations to discover important information about the war effort.

Animation

5.158

Bells of Atlantis

Sep 01, 1952

Bells of Atlantis

1952 9 min 19 vues

A perfect fusion of poetry and film, with dense layered imagery and music from electro pioneers Louise and Bebe Barron. The writer Anaïs Nin provides dialogue from her novella “House of Incest” and appears adrift in the undersea realm of Atlantis before ascending to dry land.

7.5

When the Pie Was Opened

Jan 01, 1941

When the Pie Was Opened

1941 8 min 2 vues

Surrealism, avant-garde sound montage, and irreverent wit might be the last thing you'd expect from a government-sponsored film about wartime cookery. But director, artist, animator and all-round firework of a man Len Lye specialised in the unexpected. A simple tale of a mother cheering up her daughter with a pie from her rationing-stricken pantry (interestingly the war is never directly referred to) is skilfully crafted into a work of real artistic depth, while retaining an unpretentious charm.

Documentary

7.3

Hoch der Lambeth Valk

Dec 25, 1941

Hoch der Lambeth Valk

1941 2 min 16 vues

A 1941 Ministry of Information propaganda film set to the tune of The Lambeth Walk, a popular song from the musical Me and My Girl.

Music

4

Kill or be Killed

Jan 01, 1942

Kill or be Killed

1942 18 min 1 vues

A fictional enactment of the deadly contest between a British soldier and a German sniper hiding in a tree. Kill or Be Killed differs from most army instructional films because of its powerful dramatization.

Documentary

6.6

Experimental Animation

Jan 01, 1933

Experimental Animation

1933 3 min 12 vues

Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a two-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.

Music

6.6

Experimental Animation

Jan 01, 1933

Experimental Animation

1933 3 min 12 vues

Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a two-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.

Music

6.6

Experimental Animation

Jan 01, 1933

Experimental Animation

1933 3 min 12 vues

Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a two-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.

Music

1

Peanuts

Oct 13, 2023

Peanuts

2023 6 min 1 vues

While stocking the shelves at work late at night, Mike finds a mysterious tape that calls upon The Peanut Vendor.

Horror

5.5

Life's Musical Minute

Jan 01, 1953

Life's Musical Minute

1953 2 min 2 vues

Life’s Musical Minute, recently re-discovered, is a short promotional film of this kind, based on Gene Krupa’s drum solo from “Golden Wedding” by the Woody Herman jazz band. It was Lye’s attempt to gain support from Life Magazine.

Animation

1

Prime Time

Jan 01, 1958

Prime Time

1958 2 min 1 vues

This was another sample promotional film, which Lye offered to television stations. He scratched some dramatic black-and-white abstract images, hand-coloured them, and combined them with African drum music. The film gives us a taste of what Free Radicals would have looked like if it had been made in colour rather than black-and-white.

Animation

5

Newspaper Train

Nov 15, 1942

Newspaper Train

1942 6 min 1 vues

The story of how newspapers were distributed during the Blitz, stressing the importance of an accurate and objective press on the home front.

Documentary

1

Collapsible Metal Tubes

Oct 31, 1942

Collapsible Metal Tubes

1942 2 min 1 vues

Experimental documentary about recycling.

1

Work Party

Nov 01, 1942

Work Party

1942 8 min 1 vues

Documentary about women factory workers.

1

Planned Crops

Nov 07, 1942

Planned Crops

1942 2 min 1 vues

Short comedic documentary about crops.

1

March of Time: Night Club Boom

Nov 13, 1945

March of Time: Night Club Boom

1945 18 min 1 vues

Documentary about New York night clubs.

6.6

Experimental Animation

Jan 01, 1933

Experimental Animation

1933 3 min 12 vues

Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a two-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.

Music

1

Pittsburgh

Apr 04, 1959

Pittsburgh

1959 28 min 1 vues

Commissioned by the Pittsburgh Bicentennial Association to celebrate the city’s 200th anniversary, PITTSBURGH was created by a team of filmmakers that included Stan Brakhage (working under the pseudonym James Stanley), Weegee, Len Lye, and Stan Vanderbeek, and photographers W. Eugene Smith and Willard Van Dyke. Brakhage called it “weirdly interesting, but a monstrosity.”

8

Oct 27, 1949

1949 min 1 vues

Documentary