In opposition to conventional cinema, where emotional manipulation is the norm, Joseph Cornell's movies and "goofy newsreels" are highly suggestive enigmatic collages. His fractured narratives defy easy interpretation, even with those employed by the French surrealists of the 1920s. His elliptical montages do not jell into unified wholes as much as they radiate an appealing unworldly vibration.

“Cornell’s editing tactic is to seduce through the use of dislodged movie tropes. Hence the viewer is cut loose from any normal meanings to pursue the snippets of clips and fragments taken from long-forgotten obscure movies. One is encouraged to let the Cornellian montages wash over them in an endless reverie of ecstatic moments.” —Bruce Posner

(compiled circa-1930s / completed 1968) | Joseph Cornell [completed by Lawrence Jordan]