Bullfight

director: Shirley Clarke

original title: Bullfight

country: United States

year: 1955

running time: 9 min.

synopsis

In this film, the danger and unpredictability of bullfights is paralleled with the passion and expressivity of the dance. Documentary footage of the audience and the matadors of the Spanish corrida intertwine with contemporary dance of a young woman who, in her movements, encompasses both the matador and the untamed wild animal.

“Well, in many ways that film doesn't really quite work. But it has a couple of moments in it that are extraordinary. One of them has to do with the death of the bull. The story is about a woman watching her lover fighting a bull and how he kills the bull. In the original dance, the solo dancer is both the matador and the woman watching, and I just added the fact that she was also the bull. I came up with several exciting concepts for me. I used repetition; I rechoreographed the film. I employed abstract use of color, fast editing, layered images.” — Shirley Clarke

biography

Shirley Clarke (1919–1997) was an American director and university teacher, initially a dancer and a choreographer. In the 1950s she made short films and later she directed various documentaries and feature films. She was active in the feminist movement and her work is often included in the New American Cinema.

more about film

director:

Shirley Clarke

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