SPOOK SPORT
MARY ELLEN BUTE
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7m 36s
Animated by Norman McLaren, using his adroit ink-on-film technique, Mary Ellen Bute's film visualizes Camille Saint-Saëns' DANSE MACABRE. It features colored globes, ellipses and triangles that move ghost-like over monochromatic backgrounds, communicating the notion of spirits rising from a graveyard. Commercially Bute's most successful film, SPOOK SPORT ran for months at Radio City Music Hall. — Jan-Christopher Horak
The story suggested here is that bewitching hour of midnight, spooks and ghosts arise from their graves to cavort about and make merry.
Up Next in MARY ELLEN BUTE
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SYNCHROMY NO.2
Seeing sound. Music, in addition to pleasing the ear, brings something to the eye. SYNCHROMY NO.2 was designed by a modern (circa-1930s) artist to create moods through the eye as music creates moods through the ear. A pictorial accompaniment in abstract forms to the music of THE EVENING STAR (fro...
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TARENTELLA
By 1940, Mary Ellen Bute's abstractions were shown at select theaters nationwide. Utilizing initial illustrations created by Norman McLaren for her earlier SPOOK SPORT, this "seeing-sound" film demonstrates her ability to visualize music in a style sympathetic to modernist painting. Squiggling li...
