Len Lye Package: Color Cry; Rhythm; Free Radicals; Tal Farlow; Particles In Space

  • Len Lye |
  • 1979 |
  • 13.5 minutes |
  • COLOR/B&W |
  • OPT

Rental Format(s): 16mm film

5 Film Special Package:
* Color Cry (1952, 16mm, color/so, 3m)
* Rhythm (only available in this package)
* Free Radicals (only available in this package)
* Tal Farlow (1979/1980, 16mm, b&w/so, 5.5m)
* Particles in Space

Color Cry
Inspired by Man Ray's "shadowcast" experiments, Len Lye discovered a whole range of new applications for this process in COLOR CRY and created the best and most elaborate "shadowcast" film ever made.

For years he tracked down materials and experimented with new effects. The complex textures and shapes he creates reflect Len Lye's masterful sense of abstract movement. Its color is very pure. The dramatic music interacts with the visuals to create a very powerful film.

Particles in Space and Tal Farlow
PARTICLES IN SPACE (1979) grew out of the same calligraphic material as FREE RADICALS. As with its companion film, PARTICLES is concerned with the energy of movement - of shaping light in darkness, by scratching on the film surface. In this film, Len Lye focuses on "a smaller, more compact zizz of energy than I'd ever got before on film." The rhythms of African drums again provide the musical counterpoint. "I thought FREE RADICALS as 'definitively revised' an almost unbelievably immense masterpiece (a brief epic) and that PARTICLES IN SPACE was its contemplative equivalent. COLOR CRY as great as I remembered it ...." - Stan Brakhage

Jazz guitar solo by Tal Farlow.

Before his death, Len Lye completed the drawings for TAL FARLOW (1980), his last scratch film. Just before he died, he gave approval for his assistant, Steven Jones (an experimental filmmaker) to complete the film. Jones edited it into its present shape, which also received the approval of Ann Lye, widow of the filmmaker.

Note: COLOR CRY is available separately, as well as PARTICLES IN SPACE and TAL FARLOW available on a single reel.

Rental Fees

  Fee  
16mm film $54.00  

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