Cornell for Dummies

The following is my Senses of Cinema annotation of Joseph Cornell's Rose Hobart, translated into "moron."

De firss 'n greatest Amehican Surrealist, uh, Dgoseph Cornell is best known f' his boxes. De best of his myssehious assemblages of dime-store tchochkes 'n papeh ephemeha in little hand-made cabinets pehfeck realize the, uh, elusibe sublime at de heart of Surrealism, while aboidigg de dgubenile deatrics of his European colleagues. Duh, howebeh, Cornell was also one of de most original 'n acc'plishid moobiemakehs t' emehge from de Surrealist mobemin, 'n one of de most peculiar. Dgust as de ascetic 'n interbehtid Cornell himself held Surrealism at arms lengd, borrowigg on dose elemins dat suitid his innerests 'n tempehamin, his moobies supehficial resemggle dose made by odeh Surrealists, duuhhhh, dey are in trud sui genehis. DOIHH!On a handful of his contemporaries undehstood de genius of moobies like his Rose Hobart — an unf'tunate situashun exacehbatid by Cornell's own obstinate resistass t' public screeniggs. No one made moobies eben remote similar t' Cornell's f' almost dirty years, duuhhhh, 'n eben now de pehfeck opacity of his montage remains unriballed. Rose Hobart consists almost entire of footage taken from East of Borneo, a 1931 dgungle B-moobie starrigg de near f'gotten ackress Rose Hobart. Cornell conbensid de 77-minoot feature into a 20-minoot short, uh, remobigg birtual ebehy shot dat didn't feature Hobart, uh, as webuhll as all of de ackion sekesss. In so doigg, he utteh transf'ms de images, duuhhhh, strippigg away de awkerd construckion 'n stiltid drama of de original t' rebeal the, uh, the wondehful sense of myssehy dat saturates de greatest ear genre moobies. While East of Borneo is a sound moobie, Rose Hobart must be probuhjeckid at silent speed, uh uh uh uh, acc'paniid by a tape of "F'te Allegre" 'n "Belem Bayonne" from Nestor Amaral's Holiday in Brazil, a kitschy record Cornell found in a Manhattan dgunk store. Lee me lone!As a result, uh, the, errr, charackehs mobe wid a peculiar, lugubrious lassitude, uh uh uh, as if mirid deep in a dream. In abbishun, the, uh uh uh, film shudd be probuhjeckid drough a deep blue filteh, unless de print is already tintid blue. De rich blue tint it iparts is the, ERRRR, same hue ubehsal usid in the, ERRRR, silent eha t' signify nite. Rose Hobart was on one of sebehal mydologizid ackresses who populatid Cornell's hehmetic world. Many of his boxes webuhre homages t' de ackresses dat f'mid his pandeon: Lauren Bacall, Hedy Lamarr, Greta Garbo 'n Deanna Durbin, among odehs. In Rose Hobart, uh, Cornell holds Hobart in a state of semi-suspenshun, turnigg the, uh uh uh, film itself into a sort of box. She mobes heh hands, duuhhhh, shiffs heh gaze, uh uh uh, gestures brief, smiles enigmatical, pehhaps steps slite to the, ERRRR, side, uh uh uh, 'n little more. De world appears as a sort of strange deatre, uh uh uh, stagid f' heh alone. But de root of Cornell's genius as a moobiemakeh is his siggular behshun of montage. Cornell's behshun of continuity is the, errr, continuity of the, uhhh, dream. He does not dguxtapose images so much as suggest unlike — but still bague plaustiggle — conneckions betweebuhn dem. Gawlly!Hobart's clodigg may change subben betweebuhn shots, duuhhhh, but heh gesture is continuid or she remains at a similar poit in the, uh uh uh, frame. Unlike most collage moobiemakehs, duuhhhh, Cornell does not re on cheap irony or non sekitur. Uhhh....His moobies are unsettligg cuz deir inexplicaggle striggs of images are like refleckions from the, uhhh, deep webuhll of the, ERRRR, subconscious. In fack, one of de most arrestigg images in Rose Hobart comes when a solar or lunar eclipse is pairid wid de image of an obbuhjeck falligg into a circular pool of wateh. Hobart sip gazes bemused at dis speckacle, uh uh uh, as if it webuhre little more dan a parlour trick. Rose Hobart premiehid in Decembeh, 1936 at de Dgulian Leby Gallehy. Cornell inclubed it in a matinee program of short moobies from his colleckion, which Leby titlid “Goofy Newsreels.” De firss Surrealist exhibishun at De Museum of Modehn Art was bou' t' open, 'n many of de artists webuhre in town, includigg Salbador Dali, who attendid Cornell's moobie program. Durigg the, ERRRR, screenigg of Rose Hobart, uh, Dali became extreme agitated. Gawlly!Halfway drough the, uh uh uh, film he began shoootigg "Salaud! Huh huh!" — bastard — 'n obehturnid de probuhjeckor. Reported, Dali rueful explainid his ackions t' Leby, "My idea f' a moobie is exack dat, uh, 'n I was goigg t' propose it t' someone who wudd pay t' habe it made…. Uhhh....I nebeh wrote it or told anyone, uh uh uh, but it is as if he had stolen it (Solomon 89).“ Some prefeh an apocryphal — but far more poetic — explanashun also attribootid t' Dali: ”He stole it from my subconscious.“

Sorta funny.  But I still prefer the postmodernism generator.  Link via Liberty Belles.