Good idea lost in the noise

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Entr'acte aka "In Between Acts" is a Dadaist, surrealist staple of early filmmaking. Garnering its name simply enough from being a short film made to show during the intermission of one of Eric Satie's surrealist ballets. This early avant-garde work does not rise to the level of Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali's Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L'Age d'Or (1930) or some of Man Ray's early stuff, but probably more entertaining than Ray. 92 years removed from this work and it is still an amazement to watch. The film begins with two foolish men jumping around a canon which is placed on top of a building overlooking Paris, appearing to argue which way to fire it or whether they should fire it at all. Finally, the cannon fires in slow motion effect directly toward the camera, one of the first of many Freudian phallic symbols in this 22 minute short. Next, there is the ballerina, mostly shot from below the glass she is elegantly dancing upon. These shots are also slowed. This our first psychoanalytic vaginal image (not as many as the phalli). The ballet sequences are some of the finest and inventive. The idea to have her dance on some sort of strong transparent material and have the camera below to make the appearance of the ballerina dancing on top of you is brilliant. Shooting up through transparent floor can be seen done masterfully 60 years later in Bela Tarr's Almanac of Fall. The dancing and the way in which it is filmed is majestic and ethereally and would be seen mastered a decade later by Nazi film propagandist and sports film innovator, Leni Riefenstahl, in Triumph of the Will and in the methods she used in filming Olympia, which was the 1938 Olympics. So why is this film still relevant? Because it has substantial influence in the history of cinema. Whatever your opinion may be the experimentation of early film is at the very least respectable and should be of interest. Entr'acte is an easily watchable early experimental film. The disorienting way in which Clair over-imposes images, specifically of building in the city to make it appear as if the world is at a tilt, upside down, or jutting separate ways all at once, is still fascinating today. The principles of those particular shots are the same camera tricks and editing techniques that can be seen today at major sporting events when before the game they impose images onto the basketball court and make it appear as if the floor is falling into some void or that the court is piece by piece falling apart while the logo at center court appears to rise and shift—it's the same principle, only 92 years ago and LeBron James isn't walking out afterwards for tip-off. Cinematic history should be studied, celebrated and truly appreciated for its bold inventiveness. All of this being said while in the final half of the film the narrative adventure begins. A man is killed and during the funeral procession his coffin, which is in the carriage mysteriously gets out of control and races through the city away from the mourners who have to chase it down in a wonderful comedic farce ala Keystone Cops. Finally the carriage gets outside the city and runs into an open field where the coffin slides out and bounces around the dirt. The mourners stand over the casket as magician pops out and methodically—with his wand—makes all of the mourners disappear. It is a Dadaist film. It could easily be read as a commentary on the absurdity of life and death. By allowing the coffin to get away and have the mourners turn to comedy, Clair effectively turns the idea of death on its head, illuminating the absurdity of death, as well as how often we encounter absurdity in life. And the ballerina keeps dancing and 92 years later she is still dancing, but only in between acts.

Entr-acte (1924) is probably as fun as 1920s cinematic surrealism gets, with its humorous situations, giddy experimentation with filmmaking techniques, and kinetic excitement.It's best to not try to make sense of the bizarre plot, which involves a funeral procession gone hilariously awry. I've read it described as possessing the feel of a Monty Python sketch and that description is spot on as far as I'm concerned. The Erik Satie score also adds much to the proceedings, with its bounciness and repetition. Really, the whole film feels like a zany dream you never want to forget. I saw it two days ago and still it haunts me.Befitting of the term "pure cinema."

We were shown this film in a class where at least once during each class, I start to nod off to sleep. Maybe it's the time of day, or the too-dark lights, but even during one of the Jean Vigo films we saw it didn't grab me. This one did, however, as it is one of the best short films of the 20's, or at least one of the more ambitious ones of the time. There are plenty of Freudian symbols, or maybe spoofs and in-jokes on the symbols (i.e. phallic imagery, cannons, guns, balls, and obsessions with looking up women's skirts).But more importantly there is an almost need to break through anything expectable. Unlike Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou, however, Entr'acte even goes for the manic and cartoon-like. Like Bunuel's film, there COULD be a certain thread of a story in the proceeding, if you try to take one to mind- here the story could be the unexpected tragedy of death turned up on its own head. However there is also the latter part of the film, which involves a large group running after (in trademark, hilarious fast-motion film) a hearse running down a road. It's a kind of peak of stimulating silent-film cinema, where everything being done can now be just as easily done- and is- on a daily basis by music video directors.Yet Clair is so inventive with his techniques, of pushing a speed and tempo with his style, that it works well despite making no sense on the surface. It's a film made in the heights of French impressionism and surrealism, and the almost sheer confidence of the filmmaker here propels it into being unforgettable in a way. Most will seek out the Bunuel early works first, of course, but along the way this is worth a shot. At the least, you'll have your own interpretation once its done, not shoved down your throat.

This short, which is appended to Criterion's DVD release of A Nous la Liberte, is hardly the shining example of surrealist film that its proponents would have you believe. Ultimately, it is by turns overly indulgent and downright boring. Lacking the artistry of L'Age d'Or, the suspense and intrigue of La Jetee or Meshes of the Afternoon, and the joy and spontaneity of Running, Jumping and Standing Still, Entr'acte simply never takes off. Even as a curiosity, it's not all that interesting...