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Danse Macabre is a 1922 American short film directed by Dudley Murphy and conceived by ballet dancer Adolph Bolm, who also stars in the film. Set to Danse macabre, a symphonic poem for orchestra by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, the film depicts Youth (Bolm) and Love (Ruth Page) attempting to evade the grasp of Death (Olin Howland) in Spain during the Black Plague. The film is one of a series of twelve "visual symphonies" set to classical music by Murphy, and was advertised as the first dance film to be synchronized with a sound score.

Danse Macabre was filmed entirely on a studio set, with Francis Bruguière providing the lighting. In addition to the central dance routine, the film features animation by commercial animation house F. A. A. Dahme, as well as superimposition effects.

References

1. Posner, Bruce, ed. (2001). Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1893–1941. Anthology Film Archives. p. 159. ISBN 978-0962818172.
2. ^ "Danse Macabre". Lightcone.org. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
3. "Picture Plays and People". The New York Times. New York, New York. February 26, 1922. p. 3.
4. Horak 1995, p. 123.
5. ^ Garafolda, Lunn (2005). Legacies of Twentieth-Century Dance. Wesleyan University Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0819566744.
6. Horak 1995, p. 125.
7. Horak 1995, p. 124.

Bibliography

• Horak, Jan-Christopher, ed. (1995). Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde 1919–1945. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0299146801.

External links

• Danse Macabre at IMDb

• 1922 films
• 1920s dance films
• 1922 short films
• American dance films
• American short films
• Ballet films
• Films about the Black Death
• Films about personifications of death
• Films directed by Dudley Murphy