''Very Nice, Very Nice'' is a Canadian

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

collage film Collage film is a style of film created by juxtaposing Found footage (appropriation), found footage from disparate sources (archival footage, excerpts from other films, newsreels, home movies, etc.). The term has also been applied to the physical ...

made by

Arthur Lipsett Arthur Lipsett (May 13, 1936 – May 1, 1986) was a Canadian filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada. His short, avant-garde collage films, which he described as "neither underground nor conventional”, contain elements of narrative, d ...

in 1961, and produced by the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

Plot

Thoughts about the day-to-day life interpreted through snapshots and

sound collage In music, montage (literally "putting together") or sound collage ("gluing together") is a technique where newly branded sound objects or Musical composition, compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as musique concrè ...

s pondering if life is better than it was thirty years ago.

Production

While working at the National Film Board, Lipsett collected pieces of audio from the waste bins and pieced them together as a hobby. When his friends heard the product of this they suggested that he add images to it. The result was this film.

Reception

''Very Nice, Very Nice'' was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film The Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an award presented at the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The award has existed, under numerous names, since 1957. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate awards, ''Best Short Subject, On ...

at the

34th Academy Awards The 34th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1961, were held on April 9, 1962, hosted by Bob Hope at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins became the first Best Director co-wi ...

Legacy

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

wrote to Lipsett to praise ''Very Nice, Very Nice'', stating that it was "the most imaginative and brilliant uses of the movie screen and soundtrack that I have ever seen." Kubrick asked him to create a trailer for his upcoming ''

Dr. Strangelove ''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'' (known simply and more commonly as ''Dr. Strangelove'') is a 1964 political satire black comedy film co-written, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is loosely ...

''. Lipsett declined Kubrick's offer. Pablo Ferro eventually went on to direct the trailer himself; however, Lipsett's influence on Kubrick is clearly visible in the released trailer. By 1970, the film had 200 prints in circulation. It is often shown at

film festivals A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent date and depe ...

and in

film school A film school is an educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training are ...

s. American experimental filmmaker

Stan Brakhage James Stanley Brakhage ( ; January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American experimental filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. Over the course of five decades, Brakhage cr ...

was given a copy of the film at one point.THE SHORT FILMS OF ARTHUR LIPSETT (Arthur Lipsett, 1963-1970) on Vimeo
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References

External links