Mechanical Ballet (1924)

A world in motion, where machines behave in nearly human patterns and humans are reduced to the mechanical actions of machines in an unsettling visual sculpture...

Early surrealist auteur Fernand Léger, presents to the audience a bizarre pulsing kaleidoscope of images that blur the differences between organic and mechanical, set to a recently re-created soundtrack that gives one the impression of being in a noisy factory. In 16 minutes the eye and ear are given a pleasant workout, and like most works of the early Dada movement, logic is deliberately deconstructed in favor of emotional resonance-the composition is bereft of dialogue, titles or indeed anything that would humanize the unrelenting beat of its mechanical heart...Silent, B&W.