AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
One of the longer films by surrealist Dusan Marek, made after his return to Sydney from New Guinea, Adam and Eve is an exploration of the biblical creation myth.
According to Alex Gerbaz,
it depicts the creation of the first man and woman out of dots, circles and lines. The couple have scores of children, distribute the little dots all over the place, and reserve a few to put into their pram. Suddenly, the prams starts to shake violently and there is an enormous explosion. Marek's face flashes on screen, after which we see him as creator/animator reconstructing the world. The soundtrack, semi-improvised with Ian Davidson, is one of Marek's most inventive, incorporating muffled orchestral music that floats in and out, strange bird-like noises, backwards tones, ominous drumming and whirring, and a woman singing. (p.2)
The film is made in the cut-out animation on which Marek was focusing in the early 1960s.
Source:
Gerbaz, Alex. 'Innovations in Australian Cinema: An Historical Outline of Australian Experimental Film', Journal of the National Film and Sound Archives 3.1 (2008): 1-12.
Notes
-
The National Library of Australia's record for Adam and Eve indicates that it was published under the auspices of Fontana Films, which Marek was invited to join in 1963 on the basis of his film-making successes. This would suggest a 1963 publication date for the film, while both the National Library and the National Film and Sound Archive suggest it was produced in 1962.
