"The film opens at the Atheneum Club where members are playing cards. They talk about a man named Pierpont who has an interest in the supernatural and has invited them to a séance the following day. At the séance Pierpont welcomes the visitors and introduces a man called Horace who will be the séance medium. Having set the scene by playing music and dimming the lights, Pierpont hypnotizes Horace and puts him into a wooden box. The séance continues with questions being asked to Horace in the box. When there is no answer, Pierpont opens the box and announces that Horace is dead. The horrified guests leave and find the police. On their return to the room, they find that the body is missing and Pierpont is questioned. Horace returns to the room alive and one of the guests remarks that this should be a lesson to them all" (MACE Online Archive).
"The film begins at a women's hairdressers. The manager asks one of the hairdressers to dinner that evening but she refuses as she has a customer, Mrs Blowers, who requires longer visits. At this the manager appoints Jane, a fellow hairdresser to take the appointment. Jane looks at the portrait of her fiance. We follow as the portrait dissolves into the real man. He works with cars and is informed that he has lost his job. Back at the hairdressers and Mrs Blowers arrives for her appointment. What starts as 'just a trim' becomes a longer matter. The clock shows 7.15 PM, closing time at the hairdressers. Jane loses her temper with her customer and insults her. The woman responds, stating that she will be making a complaint. On her way out Jane is informed that her customer was a stakeholder in the business. Jane meets with her boyfriend and they agree to share their bad news at a café. Later Jane discusses her situation with her friend but still despairs at her predicament. We see her writing a letter to her fiance, returning his ring and ending their engagement. She posts the letter. The next day at work Jane is informed of her week's notice. She begins cutting a young girl's hair. Outside one of the employees has alerted all about a fire. Jane notices smoke at her door. She covers the child and carries her out of the building but collapses from the smoke. The next sequence shows her in hospital. She is visited by her boyfriend and we see that she is wearing her engagement ring. At home recovering, she is visited by Mrs Blowers. This is where the film ends abruptly" (MACE Online Archive).
"This comedy-drama is a skit on “Robinson Crusoe"(HMHT 1932: 181).
"A black-and-white silent animation, which Kaneko himself described as a visualization of a musical score, Hungarian Rhapsodie. He experimented with visual geometric abstraction as a means to express the musical score, and this film was his first attempt to use the koma-otoshi technique (the technique being used for time-lapse photography or stop-motion animation)." - Noriko Morisue, "Filming the Everyday: History, Theory, and Aesthetics of Amateur Cinema in Interwar and Wartime Japan" (Yale University: PhD Dissertation, 2020): 99.
"In Rizumu 1932 nen (Rhythm 1932, 9.5mm, 1932), Kaneko played with rhythm by means of editing, this time by thematizing a large construction site where he captured machinery and workers. While he did not use as many shots of short duration as he did in Kōkyōgaku, he meticulously combined close-ups with various shots of low and skewed angles. In his personal memo, Kaneko left only a one-sentence description of Rizumu 1932 nen, suggesting that the film reflected his effort to create a rhythmic composition by integrating themes and styles." - Noriko Morisue, "Filming the Everyday: History, Theory, and Aesthetics of Amateur Cinema in Interwar and Wartime Japan" (Yale University: PhD Dissertation, 2020): 110.
"Prokino established a newsreel unit. They shot strikes and other current events, then went out to show their films. This film concerns striking bus and trolley workers, who were often in the news. A typical agit-prop film, it contains elements of performance and reenactment."
"London's West End by night. Street life and theatrical exteriors. Three couples (Kae Lomas and Ben Carleton, Phyllis Robertson and Keith Hodder, Frieda Hale and Geoffrey Collyer) meet and have varied reactions. For the first couple it is idyllic. The second couple experience friction. The third couple spend the evening apart! Features neon-lit facades of Alhambra, Capitol and His Majesty's Theatre and everyone smoking" (EAFA Database).
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema