I’ve been a little bit obsessed with the NFB film Pas de Deux, directed by the legendary Norman McLaren. I watched it for the first time a few weeks ago and it stuck in my brain. The stunning and sublime visuals augment the intimate dance choreography, and it made me see it as an impressionistic film about self-image… dancing with yourself, and what that means to dance with a partner.
McLaren uses a film manipulation technique called optical printing, which combined with the hard lighting enables the effect of multiple images existing in one frame. Add in the dancers, it made me think of dancing with my past and future self.
It reminded me of music by Andrew Bird in which he uses a looper pedal to build layers of violin to create beautiful pieces where he winds up playing music with his past and future selves (as I see it).
As a little test of a new editing software I wanted to try pairing Pas de Deux with some of my favourite Andrew Bird tracks from the album ‘I Want To See Pulaski At Night’. This bit is Hover I.
The full piece was played at the Peterborough Community Film Workshop in December.
The original Pas de Deux: https://www.nfb.ca/film/pas_de_deux_en/