Vorticism Double-Feature
Savage Messiah + Ezra Pound: American Odyssey

Introduced by Prof. Mark Antliff (Art, Art History & Visual Studies)

Savage Messiah
(Ken Russell, 1972, 100 min, UK, in English, Color, DVD)

Ken Russell's tribute to Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, the French sculptor who died in the trenches of World War I at the age of 24, makes use of the artist's own works to emphasize the beauty and originality of Gaudier-Breszka's vision. The film tells the story of the unconventional relationship between the eighteen-year-old artist and Sophie Brzeska, a woman twenty years his senior. The sets for the film were designed by Derek Jarman.
-- Part of Special Events.

-- Nominated for Best Actress (Dorothy Tutin) at the 1973 BAFTA Awards!

Ezra Pound: American Odyssey
(Lawrence Pitkethly, 60 min, USA, in English, Black & White, DVD)

The controversial American poet Ezra Pound is the focus of this standard biographical documentary by Lawrence Pitkethly. Pound's life is passed in review, from his childhood in the U.S. to his adult career in Europe where he becomes friends with other well-known writers such as James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and T.S. Eliot. One of the controversies about him raged around his defense of Italian fascists and his anti-American stance in World War II, a position that got him imprisoned after the war. Interviews with his acquaintances and scholars who have researched his poetry and life illuminate the documentary, but not as hauntingly as the poetry itself, in some instances recited by Pound in his later years. Historical footage of the poet also adds to the vision of his life.
-- Part of Special Events.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public

Sponsors: Nasher Museum of Art, Duke Libraries, Program in Arts of the Moving Image (AMI)