The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928) La coquille et le clergyman (original title)

Director:

Germaine Dulac

Writer:

Antonin Artaud (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

16 February 1933 (Japan)

Genre:

Short

Plot:

Obsessed with a general's woman, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism. |

Plot Keywords:

Lust | Nudity | Surrealism | Seashell | Obsession

Cast

Alex Allin	...	Le clergyman
Genica Athanasiou	...	La femme du général
Lucien Bataille	...	Le général

Directed by
Germaine Dulac

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Antonin Artaud		writer
Germaine Dulac		uncredited

Produced by
Germaine Dulac	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Iris ter Schiphorst

Cinematography by
Paul Guichard
Paul Parguel

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Louis Ronjat	....	assistant director

Production Companies

• Délia Film (uncredited)

Distributors

• Image Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• absolut MEDIEN (2007) (Germany) (DVD) (on: Germaine Dulac 1922-1928)

Also Known As:

"La coquille et le clergyman" - France (original title)

Runtime:

Germany:41 min (restored version) | Argentina:28 min

Country:

France

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Délia Film

Trivia:

The British Board of Film Censors banned this film in the UK in 1927, saying, "This film is so obscure as to have no apparent meaning. If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable."

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood: The Music of Light (#1.4)" (1995)

L'Avante-Garde

Germaine Dulac was no ordinary French female film-director. She was Avante-Garde and radical in her film-making which did not include a laugh track or sound. Everything was visual and her silent classics were visuals to be appreciated and understood by all of us. There was a reason that so many people saw the same movie numerous times during that era. First, it was very inexpensive and second, you needed to revisit and see the film again and again until you saw it completely. That's how films once were, films were visual masterpieces and in Dulac's case, she helped reshape the role of women in films to include more than just being an actress. She was the producer, director, and writer. She was many things to many people on film sets in France. Film was new and fresh invention that those of us who seek to learn more about art should watch Dulac's classic.