CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
A series of biographical films (on
Robert Klippel 1963-65, Charles Lloyd 1966, Will Spoor 1969, and
Harry Hooton 1969) challenges traditional documentary form, and
culminates in the autobiographical masterpiece In This Life's
Body (1984), which tells Corinne's personal story at the same
time as it addresses issues of the writing of autobiography through
images. [...]
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Garden
of Chromatic Disturbance |
Their interest
in the materiality of film is evident through all their work,
but becomes explicit in films such as Three Colour Separations
Studies - Landscapes (1976), and is particularly decisive
in a series of films about the film-making practice of ethnographer
Walter Baldwin Spencer; for instance, Reflections on Three
Images by Baldwin Spencer (1974). Corinne's early training
as a botanist is apparent in their many films that focus on the
Australian landscape, particularly in outback regions (At Uluru,
1977, and The Second Journey to Uluru, 1981), but also
nearer to home (Tidal River, 1996). They rework their earlier
films, often presenting them as performance pieces, such as Skin
of Your Eye (Seen) (1974-76), Edges of Meaning (1977-79),
Fields of Vision (1978), Grain of the Voice (1979-80),
or Projected Light (1988). Although they had worked sometimes
in 8mm, most of their early work was on 16mm, until 1990, when
a visit to Indonesia convinced them to switch to 8mm for films
such as The Becak Driver (1998).
- Ina
Bertrand, extracted from her entry in the Oxford Companion
to Australian Film, 1999.
See also
page on Cantrills
Filmnotes,
and visit the Cantrills'
website.
FILMOGRAPHY:
(16mm
unless otherwise noted)
Films made
between 1960-1963, all shown on ABC TV:
A series
of 11, 10 min. children's art and craft films; The Odyssey:
series of 10, 10 min. episodes with shadow puppets; Kip and
David: series of 13, 12 min. episodes; Zoo, 30 min.
Several 5 min. silent 'interludes', e.g. Tower of Blocks,
Feeding the Ducks, Pebbles, etc. A series
of four 6 min. studies of native flora: Banksia Serrata,
Banksia Integrifolia, Pandanus Pedunculatus, Casuarina
Equisetifolia.
Mud,
4 mins, 1963
Galaxy,
4 mins, 1963
Nebulae,
4 mins, 1963
Kinegraffiti,
4 mins, 1963
Robert
Klippel Sculpture Studies, 5 films, each 5 mins, 1964-1965
Robert
Klippel Drawings, 1947-1963, 25 mins, 1965
The Incised
Image, 25 mins, 1966
Dream,
4 mins, 1966
Adventure
Playground, London, 6 mins, 1966
Burghers
of Calais, 8 mins, 1967
Henri
Gaudier-Brzeska, 30 mins, 1968
Red Stone
Dancer, 6 mins, 1968
Moving
Statics, 28 mins, 1969
Rehearsal
at the Arts Laboratory, 4 mins, 1969
Imprints,
4 mins, 1969
Fud 69,
6 mins, 1969
Home Movie
- A Day in the Bush, 4 mins, 1969
Eikon,
3 mins, 30 secs, 1969
White-Orange-Green,
4 mins, 1969
Bouddi,
8 mins, 1970
4000 Frames,
An Eye-Opener Film, 3 mins, 1970
Earth
Message, 23 mins, 1970
Harry
Hooton, 83 mins, 1970
New Movements
Generate New Thoughts, 11 mins, 1971
The Boiling
Electric Jug Film, 8 mins, 1971
Blast,
6 mins, 1971
Meditations,
6 mins, 1971
Nine Image
Film, 3 mins, 1971
Milky
Way Special, 3 mins, 1971
Zap,
2 mins, 1971
Video
Self-Portrait, 6 mins, 1971
Gold Fugue,
3 mins, 1971*
Pink Metronome,
3 mins, 1971*
Room,
5 mins, 1971*
The City,
8 mins, 1971*
Fragments,
13 mins, 1971*
Island
Fuse, 11 mins, 1971
Skin of
Your Eye, 117 mins, 1973
At Eltham,
24 mins, 1974
Reflections
on Three Images by Baldwin Spencer, 1901, 17 mins, 1974
Negative/Positive
on Three Images by Baldwin Spencer, 1901, 10 mins, 1974
Studies
in Image (De)Generation Nos. 1, 2 & 3, each 10 mins, 1975
Three
Colour Separation Studies - Landscapes, 13 mins, 1976**
Three
Colour Separation Studies - Still Lifes, 13 mins, 1976**
Simple
Observations of a Solar Eclipse, 16 mins, 1976
Touching
the Earth Series:
1-Ocean
at Point Lookout, 46 mins, 1977
2-Near
Coober Pedy, 15 mins, 1977
3-At Uluru,
80 mins, 1977
4-Katatjuta,
24 mins, 1977
Moving
Picture Postcards, 16 mins, 1978**
Heat Shimmer,
13 mins, 1978**
Hillside
at Chauritchi, 6 mins, 1978
Near Wilmington,
6 mins, 1978
Meteor
Crater, Gosse Bluff, 6 mins, 1978*
Ocean,
15 mins, 1978*
Interior/Exterior,
3 mins, 1978***
Printer
Light Play, 6 mins, 1978
Angophora
and Sandstone, 15 mins, 1979**
Coast
at Pearl Beach, 11 mins, 1979**
Notes
on the Passage of Time, 14 mins, 1979**
Grain
of the Voice Series:
1-Rock
Wallaby and Blackbird, 66 mins, 1980
2-Two
Women, 32 mins, 1980
3-Seven
Sisters, 19 mins, 1980
Unthurqua,
6 mins, 1980
Warrah,
15 mins, 1980**
Experiments
in Three-Colour Separation, 21 mins, 1980**
Two-Colour
Separation Studies, 16 mins, 1980
Pan/Colour
Separations, 11 mins, 1980**
The Second
Journey (To Uluru), 74 mins, 1981
Wilpena,
23 mins, 1981
Time/Colour
Separations, 18 mins, 1981**
Floterian
- Hand Printings From a Film History, 12 mins, 35mm and 16mm,
1981
Corporeal,
18 mins, 1983***
Passage,
65 mins, 1983***
At Black
Range, 12 mins, 1984**
Waterfall,
18 mins, 1984**
In This
Life's Body, 147 mins, 1984
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Illuminations
of the Mundane
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Rainbow
Diary, 17 mins, 1984 (with Ivor Cantrill)
Notes
on Berlin, the Divided City, 30 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement),
1986
Walking
Track, 20 mins, Super 8mm, 1987
The Berlin
Apartment, 120 mins, 1987*** (new version 1992)
Myself
When Fourteen, 19 mins, 1989 (with Ivor Cantrill)
Bali Film,
32 mins, Super 8mm, 1990
Agung
Gives Ivor a Haircut, 4 mins, 30 secs, Super 8mm, 1991
Days in
Ubud, 31 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement), 1992
The Bemused
Tourist, from Bogor to Bandung, 23 mins, Super 8mm, 1992
View From
the Balcony of the Marco Polo Hotel, 4 mins, Super 8mm, 1992/
rev. 1993
Rendra's
Place, Depok, 8 mins, Super 8mm, 1992
Walking
to Yeh Pelu, 10 mins, Super 8mm, 1993
The Pause
Between Frames, 4 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement), 1993
In the
Shadow of Gunung Batur, 8 mins, Super 8mm, 1993
Ming-Wei
to Singaraja, 7 mins, 30 secs, Super 8mm, 1993
Ivor's
Tiger Xmas Card, 7 mins, 18 secs, Super 8mm, 1994
Ivor's
Exhibition, 15 mins, Super 8mm, 1995
Ramayana/Legong,
5 mins, 36 secs, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement), 1995
Jalan
Raya, Ubud, 15 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement), 1995
Early
Morning at Borobudur, 20 mins, Super 8mm, 1995
Decadal,
8 mins, Super 8mm, 1995
Ivor Paints,
79 mins, Super 8mm, 1995
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The
City of Chromatic Dissolution
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Petunias,
3 mins, 52 secs, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement), 1996
Articulated
Image, 3 mins, 22 secs, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement), 1996
Light
Shards, 3 mins, 30 secs, Super 8mm, 1996
Tidal
River, 38 mins, Super 8mm, 1996
Airey's
Inlet, 6 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement), 1997
F.N.Q.
Night, 4 mins, Super 8mm, 1997
Floriana
on the Esplanade, 7 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement), 1997
Ivor's
Xmas Card 1997, 3 mins, Super 8mm, 1997
Illuminations
of the Mundane - Winter, 21 mins, Super 8mm, 1997
Illuminations
of the Mundane - Spring, 12 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement),
1998
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The
Becak Driver - Superimposed
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Illuminations
of the Mundane - Late Light, 12 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement),
1998
Nimnims
in the Garden Xmas Card, 6 mins, Super 8mm, 1998
Ivor's
Ceramic Exhibition, 5 mins, Super 8mm, 1998
Cairns,
8 mins, 44 secs, Super 8mm, 1998
Garden
of Chromatic Disturbance, 13 mins, 1998**
Ivor Paints
Arf Arf, 5 mins, 28 secs, 1998**
The City
of Chromatic Dissolution, 21 mins, 35 secs, 1998**
The City
of Chromatic Intensity, 5 mins, 1999**
The Becak
Driver - Superimposed, 20 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement),
1999***
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The
Room of Chromatic Mystery
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The Land
is Not Empty, 26 mins, 2000
Light
Shards, (2nd version) 6 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement),
2001
Capricornia,
20 mins, 2001
Floriana
on the Esplanade, 8 mins, Super 8mm (16mm enlargement), 2001
Folded
Sandstone, 16 mins, 2001
The Room
of Chromatic Mystery, 7 mins, 2006
* 3-screen
film
** 3-colour
separation film
***
2-screen film
FILM/PERFORMANCE
WORKS:
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Expanded
Cinema - Arthur Cantrill painting
patterns on a black screen on which is projected a hand-painted
film, Calligraphy Contest for the New Year, as performed
at the Age Gallery in 1971.
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Expanded
Cinema 1970-1972 (Included multiscreen, projection onto patterned
and 3-D screens, and onto burning screens and screens of water.
Also included following two works.)
Calligraphy
Contest for the New Year 1971 (Hand-painted film projected
anamorphically onto black screen progressively painted white and
cut into patterns by Arthur Cantrill)
Concert
for Electric Jugs 1971 (Film of boiling electric jug projected
onto four boiling electric jugs.)
Edges
of Meaning 1977 (Film images by Walter Baldwin Spencer on
two screens at right angles, installation of Spencer frame enlargements,
Corinne Cantrill reading from Spencer's writing.)
Fields
of Vision 1978 (3-screen projection of extracts from Cantrill
landscape films, with commentary live and recorded by A. &
C. Cantrill, installation of film stills.)
Grain
of the Voice 1980 (Films made with Pitjantjatjara song men
and women with live commentary by Corinne Cantrill; installation
of sand, trees, Aboriginal artifacts; film stills.)
The Practice
of Filmmaking 1981 (16mm and Super 8 2-screen, based on the
production of the film The Second Journey (To Uluru), with
installation of sand, trees, tent etc.)
Passage
1983 (2-screen film of journey from Melbourne to Central Australia
with live and recorded commentary and action by C. and A. Cantrill;
installation of sand, trees, tent, garments, camera; film stills.)
Journey
Through a Face 1984 (2 hour autobiographical film with live
and recorded commentary and action by Corinne Cantrill, installation
of photographs, flowers, garments.)
The Berlin
Apartment 1986 (2 hours, new version 1992) (2-screen film
of filmmakers living in a Berlin apartment with live commentary
and action by Corinne Cantrill, installation of furnishings, flowers.)
Projected
Light 1988 (2 hour 2-screen and slides of film about filmmakers
house and film history and live and recorded commentary by A.
and C. Cantrill, on cinema as an art of projected light.)
The Bemused
Tourist 1997 (2 hour 3-screen presentation of films shot in
Bali and Java, 1990-94, some re-cut, with recorded music and effects
and live commentary and performance by C. Cantrill in a set/installation
of Indonesian artifacts & batiks.)
The Becak
Driver - a story from Yogyakarta 1998 (2-screen Super 8 and
16mm film and slides and installation of batiks etc., with recorded
music and effects and live commentary by C. Cantrill.)
SELECT
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Books:
Polemics
for a New Cinema, Albie Thoms. Wild & Wooley, Sydney,
1978, pp. 79, 82-83, 120-122, 130, 145, 211, 235, 252, 273, 363,
371, 387, 388, 394
The New
Australian Cinema, edited by Scott Murray, Nelson, Melbourne,
1980, pp. 164-165, 187-192
Australian
Cinema, Graham Shirley. Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1982
(2nd Ed.: Currency Press, Sydney, 1989.) pp. 257, 258, 259
Australian
Independent Film, V. Treole. Australian Film Commission, Sydney,
1982, p. 102
Don"t
Shoot Darling!, edited by Annette Blonski, Barbara Creed &
Freda Freiberg, Melbourne 1987. Corinne Cantrill writes on filmmaking,
pp. 185-192; "Time's Relentless melt - Corinne Cantrill's
In This Life's Body" by Freda Freiberg , pp. 334-342
An Australian
Film Reader, Albert Moran. Currency Press, Sydney, 1985, pp.
11, 49, 51, 185-192, 270, 334-335
La Mama,
Liz Jones. McPhee Gribble/Penguin, Melbourne, 1988, pp. 34-35
The Australian
Screen, ed. Albert Moran. Penguin, Melbourne, 1989, pp. 173,
176-177, 179, 180, 234-235
Cinema
in Australia, A Documentary History, ed. Ina Bertrand. NSW
Univ. Press, Sydney, 1989, pp. 248, 293-294, 320, 377-379, 380
L'art
du mouvement - Collection cinématographique du Musée
national d'art moderne, edited Jean-Michel Bouhours. "Arthur
et Corinne Cantrill", by Alain-Alcide Sudre. Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris, 1997, pp. 96-97, 317
Oxford
Companion to Australian Film, Ina Bertrand: "Arthur and
Corinne Cantrill", 1999, pp 55-56
Scratch
Book, ed. Yann Beauvais and Jean-Damien Collin, Paris, 1999,
pp. 46, 88, 321-323
Journals:
"Moving
Statics", Lee Harris, International Times, No. 52,
London, 27.3.1969
"Work
in Progress", Corinne Cantrill/Christine Johnson, Lip,
Melbourne, Nos. 2/3, March 1977
"Edges
of Meaning", Suzanne Spunner, The Melbourne Times,
18.11.1977
"Other
Cinema", Sam Rohdie, Cinema Papers, Melbourne, No.
16, April/June 1978
"Arthur
and Corinne Cantrill", Sam Rohdie, Cinema Papers,
Melbourne, No. 21, May/June 1979
"The
Cantrills - The Art of Seeing", Andrew Pike, "Mid-Stream"
catalogue essay, Melbourne, 1979
"The
Second Journey to Uluru", Rod Bishop, Cinema Papers,
Melbourne, Nov/Dec 1981
"Outside
the Cultural 'Image'", Rolando Caputo, Art and Text,
No. 3, 1981
"Los
Insolitos Actos Libertarios y la Pasion del Critico", Jorge
Ayala Blanco, Siemper, Mexico, 18.8.1982 [Review of The
Second Journey (To Uluru)]
"A Little
History of Cantrills Filmnotes", Kris Hemensley (preceded
by a discussion on the magazine between Corinne Cantrill, Adrian
Martin and Sue McCauley on 3RRR, 27.7.'83), H/ear #5, Melbourne,
Summer, 1983/'84, pp. 404-416
"Edges
of Meaning", Kris Hemensley, H/ear #5, Melbourne,
Summer 1983/'84, pp. 417-424
"Landforms/Filmforms",
Kris Hemensley, H/ear No. 7, Melbourne, 1984
"Melbourne
Commentary: Everything & Nothing" (In This Life's
Body), Kris Hemensley, Photofile Spring 1984, p. 9
"Corporeal",
Corinne Cantrill, Scratch #4/5, Paris, 1984
"Colour/Texture
Illusion, the films of Arthur & Corinne Cantrill", Takashi
Nakajimi, Image Forum #40, Tokyo, Jan. 1984
"The
Film Work of A. & C. Cantrill", Vikki Riley, Scratch
#6, Paris, 1985
"Eine
eigene Filmsprache", Carla Rhode, Der Tagesspiegel,
Berlin, 23.5.1985
"Geöffnete
Augen", Achim Forst, Zitty, Berlin, 24.5.1985
"Experimente
aus Australien", Michael Kintopp, Taz, Berlin, 23.5.1985
"Filme
von Frauen auf der Berlinale 85", Brigitte Tast, Medium
No. 7, Berlin, 1985
"Zu
Corinne Cantrills autobiographischen film In This Life's Body
(1984)", Noll Brinckmann, Frauen und Film #3, Frankfurt
1985, pp. 110-112
"Impure
Solutions", Denise Robinson, Art & Text 26, Sept.-Nov.
1987
"Sympathy
for the Devil", Bill Mousoulis, Filmnews, Vol.
17, No. 11, Sydney, Dec. 1987
"Losing
the Light", Fred Harden. Cinema Papers, No. 71, Melbourne,
1988
"Cinema
of the Senses: Selected Films of Arthur and Corinne Cantrill",
Barry Kapke, Cinematograph Vol. 3, San Francisco, 1988,
pp. 23-26
"The
light on the hill", David Cox, Filmnews, Sydney, Feb.
1989
'Films We
Love, #3 - Waterfall", Michael Koller, Cinema Papers
No. 102, Melbourne, 1994, pp. 10-11
"The
art of matter", Brian Doherty surveys the Cantrills' contribution
to Australian experimental film, RealTime No. 13, June-July
1996, pp. 15,16
"A Tribute
to Australian Film Artists", Brian Doherty, 43rd Sydney
Film Festival Catalogue, June 1996. p. 71
"Art
Film's primal couple", Philippa Hawker, The Age, "Today"
supplement, Melbourne, May 22, 2000 pp. 1 & 3
"Out
Of This World: The Colour Of Catastrophe", Jake Wilson, Senses
of Cinema, Issue No.8, July 2000
For a
more comprehensive Bibliography, go to Bibliography
page on Cantrills' website.
©
Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, March 2014
Arthur
and Corinne Cantrill
- their website.
Contact
Arthur & Corinne Cantrill
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