FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON (US, 1951, James Broughton)
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“Lovely and delicious. True cinematic poetry.” —Dylan Thomas
FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON depicts four poetic variations on the search for love featuring four oddball characters — Game Little Gladys, The Gardener’s Son, Princess Printemps, and The Aging Balletomane — living out their daydreams.
A filmic “suite,” FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON is based upon four poems in Broughton's 1950 collection MUSICAL CHAIRS (1950). All of the “movements” in this quartet embody forms of desire experienced between the ages of 10 to 40. Like a lyric poem, each section compresses myriad feelings into a compact moment, amalgamating image, music, and spoken verse into a film that ranges from farcical to elegiac.
As noted by Jon Gartenberg in his program note for the 1979 MoMA exhibition James Broughton, Cinema Poet: “FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON depicts the transition of individuals through four stages of life, from joyful childhood to nostalgic old age. At the end of the film, a rocking chair symbolically evokes the power of emotional memory.”
In “Game Little Gladys,” the titular Gladys’ magic skipping game conjures all the possible knights a little girl might choose for her partner. In “The Gardener's Son,” an adolescent indulges his rapturously imprecise daydreams of clothed and unclothed goddesses. In “Princess Printemps,” a moonstruck woman (played by Anna Halprin) is pursued by an eager male on a flirtatious romp around a huge classic ruin. Finally, “The Aging Balletomane” chronicles a middle-aged man who indulges in visions of lost romance and youthful sprightliness in a squalid backyard.
In addition to Halprin, FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON also stars Welland Lathrop, Charmian St. John, Don Penney, Marguerite Whitney, and John Graham, and features music by William O. Smith.
“The best film poetry ever made.” —Willard Maas
FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON
(US, 1951)
Director: James Broughton
Director of Photography: James Broughton
Music: William O. Smith
Production Assistant: Kermit Sheets
- 15 minutes
- 16mm
- B&W
- Sound
Distribution Format/s: DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server
Published By: GME
Classroom Price: $250
Institutional Price: Inquire
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