![\"8x8-1.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/8x8-1.jpg\")
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Continuing the Cocteau theme, this fascinating film remains (for the time being) unavailable in a better copy despite its artistic all-star cast.\u00a08 x 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements<\/em> (1957) can be regarded as a follow-up to Hans Richter’s Surrealist anthology Dreams That Money Can Buy<\/em> (1947), the directorial credit this time being shared between Richter, Jean Cocteau and Marcel Duchamp. The latter famously quit the art world to devote more time to chess-playing so his involvement with a chess-based fantasy (self-described as “a fairytale for grownups”) isn’t so surprising:<\/p>\n It explores the realm behind the magic mirror which served Lewis Carroll 100 years ago to stimulate our imagination.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The cast comprises famous friends including\u00a0Cocteau himself, Max Ernst, Dorothea Tanning, Paul Bowles, Fernand Leger, Alexander Calder, Duchamp, and, in the Venetian episode, Peggy Guggenheim in her favourite sunglasses<\/a>. In places it’s closer to Kenneth Anger’s Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome<\/em> (1954) than Dreams That Money Can Buy<\/em>, especially since Anger’s film was another assemblage of unique personalities. One detail I’ve not seen remarked upon elsewhere is the presence behind the camera of Louis & Bebe Barron who assisted with the sound. The Barrons are better known today for their still astonishing all-electronic score<\/a> for Forbidden Planet<\/em> (1956). Watch 8 x 8<\/em> at Ubuweb<\/a> or YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n Previously on { feuilleton } Continuing the Cocteau theme, this fascinating film remains (for the time being) unavailable in a better copy despite its artistic all-star cast.\u00a08 x 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements (1957) can be regarded as a follow-up to Hans Richter’s Surrealist anthology Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947), the directorial credit this time being shared … Continue reading “8 x 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,21,7,3,18],"tags":[3260,3407,1180,3259,3258,132,401,114,3406,1200,112,893,2976,119],"class_list":["post-14381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronica","category-fantasy","category-film","category-music","category-surrealism","tag-alexander-calder","tag-bebe-barron","tag-dorothea-tanning","tag-fernand-leger","tag-hans-richter","tag-jean-cocteau","tag-kenneth-anger","tag-lewis-carroll","tag-louis-barron","tag-marcel-duchamp","tag-max-ernst","tag-paul-bowles","tag-peggy-guggenheim","tag-ubuweb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-3JX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"8x8-2.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/8x8-2.jpg\")
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\n\u2022 Dreams That Money Can Buy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"