Surrealism: Poetic Vision

While watching Pacific Northwest filmmaker Karl Krogstad's Surrealism: Poetic Vision, it occurred to me that after a certain age (in my case, mid-30s) if you haven't read the French surrealist poets Rimbaud or Baudelaire, you're too grown-up to go back and slog through their suffering-artist-life-is-meaningless-let's-channel-our-energy-into-the-absurd repertoire. Krogstad's film tells a bit of their story, as well as that of film's contributions to the movement (Bunuel's classic short "Un Chien Andalou," Cocteau's intermittently interesting Orpheus Trilogy), and artist Salvador Dali. Numerous scholars and current practitioners, including Dr. Wallace Fowlie, Dr. Arthur King Peters, and novelist Tom Robbins, bring the full weight of critical commentary to a movement that at its height numbered some 50 members (though the legacy as seen in contemporary television and movies is considerable). Defined as the "spiritual politics of joy" (a kind of cryptic verbal bauble that will roll around in your brainpan for as long as you'll let it), "surrealism" is most often seen in practice when two completely unrelated items are violently joined. Credit must go to Krogstad for bringing much more energy to this examination of surrealism than the general viewer is likely to have while watching it. Using relatively lavish re-enactments, film clips, and creative video techniques, the subject of surrealism not only gets its grandest treatment to date, it's even treated on its own--that is, surrealist--terms. Surrealism: Poetic Vision is almost always interesting, and its excesses are more of a territorial imperative than a lapse in judgment. For a select few, this film will be the cat's meow; for others it will definitely serve as a proper introduction to the subject. For those libraries with eclectic patronage and stratospheric budgets, this is recommended. (Available from: Krogstad Studios, c/o Lynn M. Clark, 101 Prospect St., Seattle, WA 98109-3658; (206) 281-1687.)