THE SEASHELL AND THE CLERGYMAN: Germaine Dulac, France 1928. 39mins.
Widely recognised as the first surrealist film, The Seashell and the Clergyman is a complex, controversial and multi-layered film directed by Germaine Dulac, from an original scenario by Antonin Artaud. The BBFC famously banned the film stating “If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable”.
Listed as one of the great Feminist Films, the BFI describe it as “a visually imaginative critique of patriarchy – state and church – and of male sexuality.”
In The Nursery’s new score sonically reinterprets the inherent symbolism of the film, utilising sound design and experimental recording approaches – the latter including the placement of sensitive omni-directional electret microphones inside a pair of seashells.
