Breathdeath, a trageede in masks

Duration: 15

Year Published: 1963

Creator: Museum of Modern Art

Format: 16mm

Color: B&W

Sound: sound

Description: Utilizing the technique of collage animation, this dark comedy was inspired by the vision of death in 15th-century woodcuts (The Dance of death) to which the filmmaker compares modern man in a nuclear age. References to early cinema, including Melies, are combined with political commentary. VanDerBeek manipulates newsreel footage mocking social concerns about the end of the world and takes aim at Eisenhower, Nixon, Khrushchev, Hitler and Charlie Chaplin. With its juxtaposed imgaes of Hollywood and warfare, the film, in the words of its creator, superimposes Groucho Marx on a Karl Marx battlefield.

Complete Record: Utilizing the technique of collage animation, this dark comedy was inspired by the vision of death in 15th-century woodcuts (The Dance of death) to which the filmmaker compares modern man in a nuclear age. References to early cinema, including Melies, are combined with political commentary. VanDerBeek manipulates newsreel footage mocking social concerns about the end of the world and takes aim at Eisenhower, Nixon, Khrushchev, Hitler and Charlie Chaplin. With its juxtaposed imgaes of Hollywood and warfare, the film, in the words of its creator, superimposes Groucho Marx on a Karl Marx battlefield.