A series of surreal titles are rapidly alternated with cut-out animation. The titles are often simple and the words and images combine easily into an eerie flickering superimposition. Lawrence Jordan was interested in pressing this technique to the limit of informational overload. Sometimes the eye is lost in the flashing barrage of words and pictures. Sound would have been too much so it remains silent. The titles, created in 1960, are by collage artist and painter Jess Collins.
In the THE FORTY-AND-ONE NIGHTS, painter and collage artist Jess (Collins) performs his "Didactic Nickelodeon" of forty-one (now lost) collages to (his) selected sound bits in the manner of a turn-of-the-century cinematic jukebox.
Animation. The theme is weightlessness. Objects and characters are cut loose from habitual meanings as well as tensions and gravitational limitations. A lyric Erik Satie track accompanies the film. Such a portrait seems necessary from time to time to remind us that equilibrium and harmony are pos...