Joseph Cornell - Bookstalls (c. late 1930s)

Bookstalls shows a young boy at the Paris bookstalls, dreaming of travel: dramatic sea voyages, tourists milling about, buying post cards. But we also see the day-to-day life of the Isle of Marken in this found footage; people forking hay and hanging the wash. There’s a sharp cut, then, to an Asian country, and for a few moments before the return to Paris, there’s the reality, again, of the dream of travel: a rice paddy being harvested, fields being cleared, no labor-saving devices. The bookstalls re-appear, and the boy is done with the fantasy. Within a few a dissolves, the boy seems to have grown into a young man. Cornell’s travels through secondhand bookstores were vital to his art, but the film doesn’t feel like Cornell’s dream life; it feels more like a tentative exercise. -- Sarah Nichols