''The Very Eye of Night'' is 1955 American

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

silent

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

written and directed by

Maya Deren Maya Deren (born Eleonora Derenkowska, uk, Елеоно́ра Деренко́вська, links=no;

, and her last completed film. Made in collaboration with

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

Ballet School, the film was shot in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

in the

16 mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...

format, and is projected as photographed in the negative. ''The Very of Eye of Night'' premiered in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1955. It later screened in New York in 1959, with an added musical score by

Teiji Ito was a Japanese composer and performer. He is best known for his scores for the avant-garde films by Maya Deren. Early life Ito was born in Tokyo, Japan to a theatrical family. His mother, Teiko Ono, was a dancer and his father, Yuji Ito, was ...

Cast

* Don Freisinger as Gemini * Richard Sandifer as Gemini * Patricia Ferrier as Ariel * Bud Bready as Oberon * Genaro Gomez as Umbriel * Barbara Levin as Titania * Richard Englund as Uranus * Rosemary Williams as Urania * Phillip Salem as Noctambulo

Release

''The Very Eye of Night'' was made between 1952 and 1955 in collaboration with choreographer

Antony Tudor Antony Tudor (born William Cook; 4 April 1908 – 19 April 1987) was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer. He founded the London Ballet, and later the Philadelphia Ballet Guild in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., in the mid-195 ...

. The film first premiered in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1955. It later screened in New York in 1959, by which time music by

was added. In 1990, the film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in the United States by Mystic Fire Video.

References

External links

* *
Stills From ''The Very Eye of Night'' by Deren, Maya director
from Anthology Film Archives {{DEFAULTSORT:Very Eye Of Night 1958 films 1958 short films 1950s avant-garde and experimental films American avant-garde and experimental films American black-and-white films Films directed by Maya Deren 1950s American films