PT Journal
AU Petrikova, L
TI Arthouse Films Produced by the Pharmaceutical Company Sandoz
SO Iluminace
PY 2017
BP 51
EP 68
VL 29
IS 1
DI 10.58193/ilu.1502
WP https://iluminace.cz/en/artkey/ilu-201701-0003.php
DE art film; Cinematheque Sandoz; film history; surrealist film; film production
SN 0862397X
AB The study maps a unique theme of film history - the corpus of arthouse films produced by the pharmaceutical company Sandoz. The Sandoz laboratories, founded in 1886, were the first to synthetize LSD and engaged in its research and production until as late as 1960s, the period during which the films under question were produced. Since the end of 1950s, the company even featured a specialized institution, Cinematheque Sandoz, which was in charge of the production of specific artistic works with fine arts qualities. Cinematheque Sandoz brought together a group of remarkable personalities - e.g., the man of letters and fine artist Henri Michaux, the director Eric Duvivier, the nephew of Julien Duvivier, or the director Jean-Daniel Pollet - and thus created, from the both period and contemporary perspective, a unique platform for the production of arthouse films. The study introduces an interdisciplinary exploration of the surprising, yet underresearched phenomenon of film history, which combines seemingly inconsistent fields, such as surrealist film, pharmaceutical industry, the production of Henri Michaux, and the production of LSD.
ER