Dix grands dessins originaux pour À la source la femme aimée

196565 x 50 cm and 50 x 32 cm

Ten large original felt pen drawings created for the film by Nelly Kaplan
from his collection

6 500 

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Description

TEN LARGE FELT-TIP ORIGINALS CREATED FOR THE FILM À la Source la Femme Aimée from the collection of Nelly Kaplan.

The package includes :

- The large title drawing (650 x 500 mm) filmed at length at the opening of the film, an erotic drawing in which female bodies can be seen mingling with suggestive waterfalls and the central title,  At the source, the woman you loveand the author's signature.

- Nine text drawingswhich precede each sequence in the film, a kind of "intertitle".on a par with those of the silent film era"(one 65 x 50 cm, signed)
and eight measuring 50 x 32 cm). The sequence of plates forms a text on the surrealist painter and sexuality:

"A surrealist painter cannot exclude himself from the realm of sexuality. His field is naked, true love... his fantasies. 

- Both trap and prey. They carry our destinies. -

- Fantastic, original, demonic landscapes... 

- Bodies mingle with all the breaths of nature 

- The Greek myths have lost none of their force: Europa, Pasiphaë... nor Apuleius' "The Golden Ass". 

- Far from the outdated "bergerades", Surréaliste! invents a new game. Everything, right down to the furniture, joins in the "Vertigo of Eros". 

-Sade, Justine, The Château de La Coste and its insatiable ghosts Les Massacres

-Man is no longer excluded... 

- Here, let's let Goethe speak: Priape, I have nothing to fear from thieves. Let everyone take and enjoy at their leisure. I only watch out for the impotent and tartuffes...".

All the drawings are in black except for the last one, which quotes Goethe; it plays a pivotal role in the film, which shifts from black and white to colour from the 9th minute onwards.

At the Source, the Beloved Woman... is the result of a gamble. In 1965, ... I was working for Actualités Pathé, before it disappeared with the arrival of television. Each Pathé magazine, which changed every week, included a short segment on art and entertainment. I had already shot a film about Man Ray for this series, a short report that disappeared because the subjects that weren't included were thrown in the bin! [...] The Head of News liked my report on Man Ray, so she asked me to suggest another subject. I chose André Masson, whom I knew through my Surrealist friendships and whose work I admired.
During the shoot, Masson pulled a large cardboard box out of a drawer and, grinning mischievously, told me that he didn't think I would dare film its contents. In fact, it contains
a series of very beautiful erotic drawings that don't fit easily into the moral constraints of Actualités Pathé. But that's not knowing me very well. When I saw them, I was so enthusiastic that I decided to make a film to be produced by Cythère Films, the small company that I run with Claude Makovski. This is how "At the Source, the Beloved Woman...". Each sequence is preceded by an intertitle with an autograph text by Masson, similar to those that existed in the silent film era.
Once the film was finished, we presented it to the Control Commission, as no work can be released on French screens without a censorship visa. Unpleasant surprise: it is
totally forbidden! Anastasie, Torquemada's milk sister, is definitely not fond of me.
Very angry, I got an appointment with André Malraux, then Minister of Culture. I stormed into his office and, comediante-tragediante, told him
a fiery speech on a par with the best Catilinaires :
"- And it's you, André Malraux, who would allow a film to be made about an artist you admire, whose work is exhibited in museums thanks to you, and some of whose works are on display in museums.
frescoes decorate the ceiling of the Théâtre de l'Odéon? "My blows are effective. His human condition is uncomfortable. In total bad faith, I follow up with a subtle allusion to the snows of yesteryear of the courageous International Brigades. Is culture in exile on rue de Valois? And I thought France was the land of all freedoms! I conclude my tirade, saying to myself in petto that Sarah Bernhardt would have been proud of me. I put on a pathetic face and waited for the verdict. A long silence followed. Then, between two nervous tics, Malraux finally said in his unmistakable voice:
"- Good. Cut off anything that sticks out, and I'll get you the visa!"
What sticks out? I'm holding back a giggle, because if you were to remove the industrial quantity of phalluses "sticking out" in Masson's drawings, there wouldn't be much left...
But as I had to get that damn visa or I'd never be able to release the film, I removed some of the more ithyphallic shots. We run it again in
censor board, this time obtaining a ban on under-18s. Which is better than a total ban, even if it will undermine the sex education of young people...
Somewhat circumcised,  A la Source, la Femme Aimée is scheduled to open a sketch film by Vadim, Chabrol and Molinaro: "Les sept péchés capitaux" (The Seven Deadly Sins). I'll be the eighth.
As the years went by I reinstated the original version and. o tempora o mores. I applied for and obtained a visa for all audiences!

(Nelly Kaplan, extract from the DVD booklet, Picasso's vision followed by André Masson - At the source of the beloved woman - Cythère Film )

BEAUTIFUL TOGETHER. 

 

1965.65 x 50 cm and 50 x 32 cm,

Bio

André Masson

(Born on 4 January 1896 in Balagny-sur-Thérain (Oise), and died on 28 October 1987 in Paris)

 

See The Works