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Geography of the Body

  • 19431943
  • 7m
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
242
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • IMDbPro
Geography of the Body (1943)
  • Short
A quotation from Aristophanes, "The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love," precedes views of a man and a woman's bodies, often in extreme close up. Off-screen, a voice recites frag... Read allA quotation from Aristophanes, "The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love," precedes views of a man and a woman's bodies, often in extreme close up. Off-screen, a voice recites fragments of oracular literature and purple prose. We see an eye, an ear, a mouth, a tongue, b... Read allA quotation from Aristophanes, "The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love," precedes views of a man and a woman's bodies, often in extreme close up. Off-screen, a voice recites fragments of oracular literature and purple prose. We see an eye, an ear, a mouth, a tongue, bits of hair, a hand, the tips of fingers, toes. Occasionally, the frame includes a larger ... Read all
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
242
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Willard Maas
  • Stars
    • George Barker
    • Willard Maas(uncredited)
    • Marie Menken(uncredited)
Top credits
  • Director
    • Willard Maas
  • Stars
    • George Barker
    • Willard Maas(uncredited)
    • Marie Menken(uncredited)
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 4User reviews
    • 1Critic review
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
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    Geography of the Body (1943)
    Geography of the Body (1943)
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    Top cast

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    George Barker
    • Narratoras Narrator…
    Willard Maas
    • Bodyas Body
    • (uncredited)
    Marie Menken
    • Bodyas Body
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Willard Maas
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

    Storyline

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    A quotation from Aristophanes, "The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love," precedes views of a man and a woman's bodies, often in extreme close up. Off-screen, a voice recites fragments of oracular literature and purple prose. We see an eye, an ear, a mouth, a tongue, bits of hair, a hand, the tips of fingers, toes. Occasionally, the frame includes a larger scape of a body: a chest, a back, a breast. Usually the camera is stationery; sometimes, it moves across a body, remaining in close up. They hold hands for one moment. The bodies are without clothes; no genitalia are visible. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>
    • extreme close up
    • surrealist
    • body hair
    • nipples
    • narration
    • 4 more
    • Plot summary
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    • Genre
      • Short
    • Parents guide

    User reviews4

    Review
    Top review
    7/10
    Abstraction is avant-garde
    Abstraction is one of the key attributes in many avant-garde short films; the constant subversion and altering of ritualistically accepted objects and subjects is something that finds itself present in these films to the point where sometimes the only extractable emotion for the audience when watching them is alienation and frustration. Willard Maas's Geography of the Body, a seven minute short film shot with the help of Maas's wife, filmmaker Marie Menken, who is responsible for various collage-driven abstract works, works to add that same layer of abstraction and visual confusion to one of the most commonly seen and accepted principles of our lives - our body, its features, and its perplexities.

    For seven minutes, Maas lingers on extreme close-up shots of the human body; everything from armpits, legs, and even lips with evident beard stubble below them are profiled in immaculate detail. Narration exists for the entire experience, but it largely feels like it's talking in endless circles of philosophy and confusion rather than coming to a clear and discernible point. The real interesting element comes from watching Maas's camera not really define nor emphasize, but simply linger on the various textures of the human body, almost making it a foreign animal after a while, like staring at a word for too long and feeling like it's spelled wrong or doesn't make sense.

    Avant-garde films, as a generalized whole, get us to question two things and those things are ideas or objects we've come to accept without question - be them physical or ideological - or what we can adequately and appropriately call a film. Maas finds middle-ground with that sentiment in Geography of the Body by superimposing and lingering on unique shots of the human exterior rather than analyzing it as it is.

    Directed by: Willard Maas.
    helpful•0
    0
    • StevePulaski
    • Nov 26, 2015

    Details

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    • Release date
      • August 28, 1977 (Canada)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      7 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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