Alexander Calder

The film begins with a sun materializing out of the emptiness of space. In the first of three sequences we see various images from nature against music: the sky, trees, leaves, a bird, water, sand, a beach. A little boy wanders along the beach observing the natural world around him. He walks and presently comes to a house and peers inside. The second sequence has no music. The narrator speaks of sculptor Alexander Calder and his work, as we see Calder in his workshop, cutting and creating unusual shapes, and seeing the resultant artworks. The last sequence has music as we view images of Calder's work. However, now they are intercut with images from nature so that we understand that Calder's inspiration is the natural world around him. The film ends as it began, with an image of the sun, now fading into the sky.

The Challenge... A Tribute to Modern Art is a 1974 American documentary film directed by Herbert Kline. The film shows footage of great modern artists in their studios creating and commenting on their work, with narration and commentary by Orson Welles. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Captures Alexander Calder at work on a wire model.

Ce “film de copain” de Jean Painlevé est le premier tourné sur le célèbre cirque miniature fabriqué à Paris par Calder entre 1926 et 1931. Calder lui-même y officie en tant que Monsieur Loyal, omniprésent et omnipotent.

American sculptor, Alexander Calder, creates around the workshop. The film features several of his kinetic sculptures-- Wild moving figurines that spin, undulate and perform circus acts. The film ends on a hanging moon mobile, completing our wacky trip.

Alexander Calder revolutionized the art of sculpture with his distinctive modernism, freeing sculpture from its stand and adding movement to the art itself. He rose to fame in the 1930s with his renowned Miniature Circus but his modernist creativity skyrocketed with his wire sculptures, an invention he dubbed "drawing in space."

8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements is an American experimental film directed by Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, and Jean Cocteau. Described by Richter as "part Freud, part Lewis Carroll" and filmed partially on the lawn of Duchamp's summer house in Southbury, Connecticut.

The 1966 construction of Alexander Calder's 'La Grande Voile' (The Big Sail), a monumental sculpture installed in McDermott Court at MIT in Cambridge.

Documentation of an exhibition entitled Le Mouvement held in Paris in 1955, co-curated by Breer and Pontus Hulten. Features works and appearances by Breer, Tinguely, Agam, Soto, and others. — Anthology Film Archives

Surtout connu pour ses mobiles et stabiles géants, le sculpteur americain Calder devient très vite, a son arrivée en France en 1926, la coqueluche du Tout-Paris artistique qui se presse aux représentations de son cirque miniature. Il y présente les personnages traditionnels du cirque. Il travaille avec des bouts de ficelle et réussit un tour de force: les multiples petites figures articulees, a base de bois, de fil de fer et autres ressorts, s'animent comme par enchantement au bout de ses gros doigts.

Calder, le "père" des fameux mobiles, est non seulement sculpteur, mais peintre. Son oeuvre peinte est peu connue dans ses productions artistiques. Pourtant dans ses gouaches, les couleurs planent, flottent comme les constellations de ses sculptures et ce sont les mêmes teintes entières : le rouge, le bleu, le noir, le jaune. Quand l'humour s'en même, toute une fête fantastique s'organise sur la grande plage de papier. Faire des gouaches est un travail plus intime que faire des mobiles. Cela sera le prétexte pour entrer dans l'intimité de l'artiste.

Une nouvelle approche du réalisateur sur l'étonnant monde des sculptures mobiles de Calder qu'il avait déjà filmés quelques années auparavant.

An attempt to bring the work of surrealist artists to a wider public. The plot is that of an average Joe who can conjure up dreams that will improve his customer's lives. This frame story serves as a link between several avant-garde sequences created by leading visual artists of their day, most of whom were emigres to the US during WWII.