Ballet Mécanique

Ballet Mécanique (1924 ) This short experimental film was conceived by Fernand Léger in collaboration with the filmmaker Dudley Murphy (with cinematographic input from Man Ray) and music by George Antheil. Its juxtapositions of the human and the mechanical suggest a world succumbing to the mechanistic, a dehumanizing production line. The French model Alice Prin, nicknamed Kiki of Montparnasse, commands the male gaze, objectified into multiple parts, including an unforgettable smile that hovers like angel wings among the pistons.

My dreams are all industrial.

Corkscrews with mini-cameraheads

Scope for polyps within caverns.

Robotics sustains mechanical hearts,

Insulin pumps nourish kidneys,

And brain scans decode orgasms.

Wheel-cogs connect and spin,

Well-oiled enough to defeat friction,

Yet not without decompressed screams.

 

My wounds are all superficial,

Except for being shunned by love,

Whose kaleidoscope multiplies pearls.

 

We are the robots now, specially enhanced

Street signs: Triangle or circle,

Whichever brings closure soonest.

Smile, little butterfly, until time cracks

And the bell loses its freedom.

Nazis preferred to drink decaf.

[Disposable Poem January 24, 2019]

Dr. Mike