International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences
© 2015 Available online at www.irjabs.com
ISSN 2251-838X / Vol, 9 (6): 869-872
Science Explorer Publications
Analytical Approach DaDaistic Cinema Structure
and Intellectual Bases of DaDaism along with Social
and Historical Background
Gholamreza Madanipour
Professor of Art and Architecture Faculty of Azad University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran MA degree in Cinema,
Tehran Art University
Corresponding Author email: [email protected]
ABSTRACT: DaDaism was a kind of objection toward rationalism and reason-belief along with a
reaction toward catastrophes and crimes of Great World War I in which the reason-believing human
had committed. The modernity which had dominated on mind and intellect of European humans after
Renaissance and also on the whole artistic, cultural, economic, social, political and industrial life, so
it eventually ruined the palace of rationalism in the mind of European human`s mind, persuaded
thinkers and artists to find a novel way to express their beliefs, thus the advent of DaDas from the
heart of ash and bloodshed of Great World War I was seen. DaDas were carrying a deconstructive
intellectual system incompatible with conventional rules governing .
They were anti-wisdom, anti- politic, anti- militarism and anti-establishment, so they based their
artistic and literary system on it. The literature of DaDa in general and The cinema of DaDa in
particular declared their disagreement with being commodity and order in art and presented a novel
art and cinema which were anti-narration and anti-classic ethnics (based on modernity and rule of
reason appeared after Renaissance) by norm breakage as well as being disagreed with frequent
artistic currents.
Keywords: Cinema; DaDa; Intellectual system; Content; Form; great war.
INTRODUCTION
This paper is to analyze intellectual, forming and content structure of DaDas with the approach of social,
historical and forming base as well as describing framework of the anti-story and anti-narration of DaDaistic
cinema.
The Great world war I was a lethal hit on total wisdom and rationality of human being. The European
human who has been coming toward reason belief after Renaissance and consequently achieved amazing
scientific and industrial developments is currently tossing in a whirlpool of war, crime and bloodshed, the human
who was the creator of such whirlpools, tools, weaponry and military weapons, the human who had built his life
based on wisdom and mind. (Teylor, 1991)
DISCUSSION
Crimes, massacres and destruction due to first world war was so unprecedented that made each thinker
and thoughtful human rethink about the principles, humanitarian and living criteria. The artists and open-minded
individuals were looking at war catastrophes as well as getting the news of killing sophisticated people, artists
and thinkers. Guillaume Apollinaire, a great French poet, Charles-Pierre Peguy, Alain Fournier along with 500
other poets and authors were killed in war, so their names have been inserted in a book called "The collection of
the authors killed in war" published in 1924. (SeyedHoseini, 2001)
Amongst them, some youth who were despair of war disasters in search of novelty in art, literature and
culture did not find the fate of mankind prosperous but ruin and perplexity, decided to get together apart from
homicide, bloodsheds and war chaos to find a way in the territory of art and literature because based on their
attitude, no one could have helped another human for better understanding of life along with peace and
coexistence. This group of youth who were individually active in the field of art and literature, from different
countries and nationalities in Switzerland which remained neutral in all wars, got together, then Dada was born
due to such gatherings. Primary gatherings were in a café called "Voltaire" in Zurich where they were
Intl. Res. J. Appl. Basic. Sci. Vol., 9 (6), 869-872, 2015
associating and exchanging their ideas. Dada birthday ceremony was held in Zurich in “Café Terrace” one year
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later on 8 of February 1916. (SeyedHoseini, 2001)
The people who participated in this ceremony were: “Tristan Tzara” from Romania, “M.Yanco”. “Hugo
Ball” and “R. Huelsenbeck” from Deutschland, “J. Arp” from Alsace and et al.
A young poet called Tristan Tzara was leading this group. To name this group, Tzara took a knife and
pierced accidentally into Larousse a French-German dictionary, extracted a word from a page by chance, this
word was DaDa, then named his group and his intellectual– artistic movement DaDa. It is evident that this
accidental naming was in fact a sort of sarcasm which teasedall previous schools, cultural and artistic currents
for creating the movement they wished.
DaDa means horse in children language and in colloquial language means hobbyhorse which is of
course really meaningless in connection with this school. This group which is now named DaDa was a rebel and
violent group in art and culture whose slogan was mortality and denied all arts and cultures. They believed that
art and literature have been the tools in the hands of the most powerful and wealthiest. They believed that works
of art have been changed to ordering goods that only wealthy people, masters, aristocratic types, kings and
church ordered, thus they considered all artistic and literary works prior to themselves works of corruption and
useless which should have been demolished. Everything should be destroyed and do nothing but objection and
rebellion. (Gumbrich, 2001) DaDa was based on mortality even its mortality and perishing itself.
DaDas had a famous motto: "DaDa is anti-DaDa'' (Lynton, 2003) , it is obvious that kind of full-scale
Nihilism can be seen in their thought. Their odd paradox was although their efforts for destroying and ruin the
arts and literature, their created works became a prelude for all contemporary art and literary currents.
Whenever DaDas appeared based on its abnormality or even social thinking trait, they caused riot and
anarchy. The range of their activity gradually reached Germany and finally France which based in Paris and the
other thinkers, poets and artists joined them. Louis Aragon, Andre Breton, Paul Éluard were the individuals who
joined DaDa. Prior to studying artistic and literary activities and at last "DaDaistic cinema", it would be better to
mention intellectual and believe principles to find out what the creating artistic literary works, the origin and
destiny of these activities have been.
Anti-rationalism
DaDas severely believed that reason belief and rationality which were dominant in Europe after
Renaissance, have sunk human in the abyss of humanitarian disasters and fall. They believed that if rationality
and wisdom were dominant, human`s destiny was not like this and all weaponries and weapons of mass
destruction are the result of such reason belief. Based on this subject, all the art history and literature of Europe
which were built on wisdom and rationality are futile and the current art and literature cannot do anything for
human`s salvation.
Anti-militarism
War and disaster created the main flick in the mind of this group. War and its wretched outcomes were
a stroke on all beliefs and values, so they believed that a new way should be found to terminate war and
suffering of human. A way to break current norms and show new merits.
Anti-politics
They believed that war has a root in political games and politicians for gaining power and wealth.
Politics and politicians were the most important enemies for society and humans that caused war to achieve
their goals. It is obvious that political rulers and statesmen did not accept the presence of this group and reacted
severely.
Anti-establishment
Based on their theories and thoughts, DaDas concluded that the current system which was dominant on
society as well as rules and regulations of social games would not convince human`s needs. Thus, current
status ought to be ruined to create a new status for ruling.
Anarchism
Their solution to revolt status quo was going toward anarchism. The Anarchism which had been existed
in the middle of 19th century in Europe particularly in “Tsar of Russia” believed that by irregularity they can reach
regularity. Anarchists knew government and government invention greatest monumental mistake and disaster
for people, so all states, rules and regulations of government should be demolished and the people themselves
can achieve a novel regularity due to lack of government and without ruling they live with each other in peace.
The collection of these polls and thoughts determined DaDa`s artistic and literary policy in their productions.
After being centralized in Paris which synchronized with termination of first world war, their activity started in the
field of poetry, literature and play as well as gradual joining of some painters to DaDas who later were known as
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the greatest painters in 20 century.
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Dada showed off in painting too. At this time, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger, Rene Clair, Francis Picabia,
Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp joint Dada and innovated their works of painting, cinema and visual arts by following
DaDaism. All play performances and their exhibitions were full of tumult, anarchy and brawl. For instance, in a
two-screen play written by Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault, the playwrights were supposed to come upthe
stage to commit a suicide in front of the audienceafter performing the first screen, and also DaDaists were
supposed to shave their heads in the public eye, of course people`s reaction was natural, they saw them out by
rotten tomato and for the first time by beefsteak.
Although DaDa paradox was destructive and ruinous, it was willing to innovate and create to bring a
new world where all humans could breathe easily. They intended to set up a new system by overthrowing the
old system and in this way, they were going to change literary works and works of art which were an exchange
good to a unique work which was only the outcome of an artist`s wish with lots of individual worries.
But this very paradox and contrast in ''DaDa '' led to their annihilation. There were aware of their
temporary destruction and felt that they needed new horizons. Therefore, a group of DaDa led by Andre Breton
believed that something else should be replaced and renovated after destruction, then a specific goal shout be
set. As a result, the bases of “Surrealism” were built on the tomb of DaDa. It is narrated that after a DaDa group
exhibition, DaDas put all their manifests in a box in a sarcastic play then left it in “Seine” river , took off their hat
and DaDa funeral was done.
DaDaistic Cinema
DaDaistic cinema was manifested much later than DaDa presence in other arts. This delay brought
plentiful bonuses for DaDaistic cinema. on the one hand, directors interested in producing DaDaistic movies
could apply the maturity and gift of DaDa in other arts and on the other hand, by the achievements that
Impressionist Avant-garde filmmakers had obtained technically and pictorially, a suitable field and bed were
provided for " DaDaistic cinema " to build DaDaistic views and ideas relying on these achievements.
DaDaistic cinema was anti-fairytale even anti-narration. There is no logical implication in the film or
between the sequences in ''DaDaistic cinema. Optical technique (Dissolve, Fade in, Fade out, Wipe,
Superimpose, Iris) were used a lot. Using quick rhythm in codification and high mobility in pictures with gradual
use of slow motion are the features in this type of cinema. The aim of these movies in terms of content is
transferring the absurd feeling and the absurdity of the world around and denying any belief and social musts.
The most significant and greatest DaDaistic filmmaker is "Rene Clair". Rene Clair whose real name was “Rene
Chomette” was working as a journalist and actress. The movie "Entr`Acte" (1924) is the masterpiece of Rene
Clair and ''DaDaistic cinema. The scenario of this film was written by Francis Picabia, one of the founders of
DaDaism.(Bordwell, 2003)
Rene Clair considered this film a pictorial lingual stammer. In the whole film, the scorn of Bourgeois
societies and challenging the spectators were obviously seen. The appearance of Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp at
the beginning of the film playing chess shows all DaDas accompany in fighting against civilization aspects,
bourgeois and rationalism. Fastening a camel instead of horse to afuneral carriage and taking a piece of
pendent bread from the carriage by one of the procession finally lead to procession running ridiculously and at
the end, when a magician comes out of the coffin, the audience and herself disappear. By applying
superimpose, quick and rhythmic codification this film, avant-garde influences are really evident.
It is impossible to find a special narrative and storied logic in this film. "Entr `Acte" is really anti story
and anti logic of the story which has been appeared by arranging the rhythm of images and sequences.
"Man Ray" who was an American photographer brought and linked his experiences to cinema by joining
DaDa. He sprouted some needles and buttons on the film negative to show its impact on the negative emulsion
in the film "The return to wisdom" (1923).
Another film of Man Ray called (1927) “Emak-Bakia” in which forms and abstract shapes along with
chessmen are played pictorially. (Bordwell, 2012)
“Ballet Mécanique” movie (1924) which was made by "Fernand Leger" is full of images of bowls, frying
pans and faces dancing and amongst them, an old woman is panting, going up the stairs one by one.
(Geregour, 1989)
“Marcel Duchamp”, a great contemporary artist, by drawing mustache on “Mona Lisahas” ridiculed the
whole universe, presented a cinema experiment in the form of "DaDaism" name "Anemic Cinema". ( Lynton,
2003)
Marcel Duchamp whom Andre Breton knew him as one of the greatest contemporary modern artists in ending
years of 1920s, he stopped all his artistic activities and played chess until death as a symbolic movement and
as a sign of objection to status quo. This behavior of Marcel Duchamp reviews the famous quotation of
Nietzsche, the nihilist philosopher, was saying "Art cannot do anything in the world today anymore". (Nietzche,
1996)
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CONCLUSION
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The rage of thinkers, humans and the artists of 20 century resulted in DaDaism versus self-reason and
rationalism in which the Great World War I ruined the constructed temple of wisdom and intellect after
Renaissance.
DaDas were the founder of a new current with a new vision in art and culture who declared new artistic
promising days in literature, cinema and paintings as well. DaDaistic cinema tried to show DaDaism current to
manifest and mirror the whole belief and intellect of DaDa, although unfinished, they fulfilled it. Anti-story and
anti-logic DaDaistic cinema along with codified structure of its special movies were that very sarcasm and
degrading self-esteem and modernity.
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