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188 III. COMPOSITION
poulos, and others externalize sundry frustrations, inhibitions, and longings, with a certain predilection for the oblique emotional experiences of adolescents, homosexual or not.25 As compared with the old avant-garde output, this new crop stresses more intensely feelings of alienation, while being poorer in social and political overtones. It might be mentioned in passing that Richter too has gone surrealist with his Dreams that Money Can Buy.
Much as it would be tempting to comment on some important films in the surrealistic vein, the task here is, rather, to ascertain the common characteristics of the whole genre; only then will it be possible to appraise its adequacy to the medium in the light of our basic assumptions. In the case of the surrealistic trend it is perhaps indicated to state expressly what is implied throughout— that such an appraisal need not have a direct bearing on the value of films as human documents and manifestations of collective fears or desires.
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS
Surrealism vs. abstraction The surrealists of the late 'twenties were quite aware that they dealt in content rather than form; that much can be inferred from the insistence with which they repudiated one-sided emphasis on rhythm and the concomitant use of nonobjective material. Michel Dard, for instance, declared that films which confine themselves to displaying "several geometrical lines painstakingly varied by [way of] all tricks of the trade" were undeniably pure but that the term "pure," as applied to them, "was synonymous with something congealed, short of breath, and barren."20 And according to the avant-garde poet Antonin Artaud, who wrote the script of The Seashell and the Clergyman, we just "remain insensible to pure geometrical shapes which in themselves mean nothing."27 Modern film artists in quest of self-expression do not hesitate either to denounce abstract formalism. As Maya Deren puts it: "My main criticism of the concept behind the usual abstract film is that it denies the special capacity of film to manipulate real elements as realities, and substitutes, exclusively, the elements of artifice (the method of painting)."28 Side by side with the abstract trend there existed, and still exists, an urge for statements rich in meaningful content.
Prevalence of inner reality The content itself evidently falls into the area of fantasy. To be precise, it is fantasy which, by implication, claims to be more real and weighty than the world of our senses. Add to this the surrealists' understandable insouciance regarding staginess, as illustrated by the donkey carcasses on the grand pianos in Un Chien Andalou or the snow-covered court yard in The Blood of a Poet. Yet we have already seen