Cinemagritte

<p><em>Cinemagritte: Rene Magritte within the Frame of Film History Theory and Practice</em> investigates the dynamic relationship between the Surrealist modernist artist Rene Magritte (1898-1967) and the cinema-a topic largely ignored in the annals of film and art criticism. Magritte once said that he used cinema as "a trampoline for the imagination" but here author Lucy Fischer reverses that process by using Magritte's work as a stimulus for an imaginative examination of film.</p><p>While Fischer considers direct influences of film on Magritte and Magritte on film she concentrates primarily on "resonances" of Magritte's work in international cinema-both fiction and documentary mainstream and experimental. These resonances exist for several reasons. First Magritte was a lover of cinema and created works as homages to the medium such as <em>Blue Cinema</em> (1925) which immortalized his childhood movie theater. Second Magritte's style though dependent on bizarre juxtapositions was characterized by surface realism-which ties it to the nature of the photographic and cinematic image. Third Magritte shares with film a focus on certain significant concepts: the frame voyeurism illusionism the relation between word and image the face montage variable scale and flexible point of view. Additionally the volume explores art documentaries concerning Magritte as well as the artist's whimsical amateur "home movies" made with his wife Georgette friends and Belgian Surrealist associates. The monograph is richly illustrated with images of Magritte's oeuvre as well as film stills from such diverse works as <em>The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Eyes Without a Face American Splendor The Blood of a Poet Zorns Lemma The Island of Dr. Moreau The Draughtsman's Contract </em> and many more.</p><p><em>Cinemagritte</em> brings a novel and creative approach to the work of Magritte and both film and art criticism. Students scholars and fans of art history and film will enjoy this thoughtful marriage of the two.</p>