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Outside the Circus A CLOWN .-----Outside the Circus------. ous close-up faces dissolve one into the by Lois Siegel other). A politician can promise them anything, and they will not remember o most people Arthur Lipsett will al- , later what he has promised." ways be an enigma. He was unique. The film is fllied with contradictions: THis idiosyncracies bred myths,. and (stuttering voice) " ... and the game is re­ these myths were so strong that they. ally nice to look at..." (we see a collage pass on, like fairy-tales. of wrestling photos picturing grimacing During the last week of April, 1986, faces and hefty men tugging and pulling Arthur Lipsett ended his life, two weeks at each other in agony). A bomb before his birthday. He would have explodes: "Everyone wonders what the been 50 on May 13. future will behold." This is intercut with people having fun and smiling: smiling A Glimpse of Lipsett mouths, smiling eyes ... then another He loved simple things: chocolate-co­ shot of the bomb... (man's voice) "This vered M&M peanuts; National Lam­ is my line, and I love it." Later we see poon's film Vacation, and his own, orig­ shots of newspapers: "There's sort of a inal spaghetti sauce which he garnished passing interest in things." (followed by with pickles and olives. c: a shot of a pastry-shop window and a He discovered the power of mm at a ~ cake in the shape of a smiling cat). "But young age and set about creating high­ {l there's no real concern." "People seem () voltage collages. A sculptor, his mater­ ill unwilling to become involved in any' ials were down-to-earth, everyday .~ thing ... " (more collage photos of faces : a people. His messages were challenges ~ \ Santa Claus, pause, a shoot of a dead to our beliefs, practices and values. ~ : man on the street) "I mean really in- He saw a discrepancy between what 6- volved." we say and what we do; that somehow ~ "Almost everybody has a washing the connection was missing. He also . ~ machine, a drying machine." "I would questioned why people do what they ~ say that's really a dangerous thing, if the do; for example, in 21-87 a man on a ~ only thing you can think of to express .._______________________________ .. 0. your individuality is an orange planta- horse is shot out of a cannon, and in A Trip Down Memory Lane, a young tion in BraziL" girl rides atop a balloon high in the sky, Arthur Harold Lipsett Lipsett questioned middle-class while a waiter serves a meal among the values. He felt victimized by them. He open girders of a sh.. ysc raper under con­ puzzled over people's obsessions with struction. People are curious beings. Born: May 13,1936 objects. His films view life as a living So Lipsett collected images portray­ hell. ing the bizarre relationship between the Died: April, 1986 U.S. Air Force planes pile up in a human organism and the environment. waste heap ... we hear a bongo roll, "And His explorations baffled some, stunned Low, who first hired Lipsett, describes 550000. The technique was different they say the situation is getting worse," others. But one thing was sure. He had him as a "lively, wide-eyed, bushy-tailed because Lipsett was putting pictures to followed by laughter. More planes ap­ , something important to say to us all - if kid. He had a knack for randomly glean­ sound. The soundtrack came first: an as­ pear. Finally, we hear applause, then we would only listen. ing what interested him." sembly of disparate voices spliced to­ "Bravo, Very Nice, Very Nice." He discovered film by working on gether. Other people worked the other '.' Whether he was ahead, behind or • shon clips in the Animation Depart­ way around, taCking sound omo images; out of his time is irrelevant. He was just ment. He made bloopy cartoon films for only animators started w ith the sound­ a very good artist," says filmmaker Lipsett was a filmmaker, philosopher sponsors in Onawa, spots for TV, illus­ track. Derek May. and eccentric. He grew up on Hingston trations to be used as inserts for live-ac­ Very Nice, Very Nice was nomi­ At the Board, Lipsett completed five Street in the west of Montreal. At 21 , £ion mms - what was known as "service nated for an Academy Award in 1961. more films, each on the theme, vari' fresh from the Museum of Fine Arts work." Lipsen was 25 years-old. ati on or development of his fascination School, he was "adopted " after a fashion Lipsett began collecting bits and Very Nice, Very Nice has a sober, with the connection between sounds by The National Film Board, where pieces of "outs" or fUm discarded by sombre, quality to it. It speaks of the in­ and images and the people who create most of his creative years were spent. other fllmmakers, unearthing these difference of humankind. At one point a them. His producers included Tom Early in lipsett's film career, his life scraps in editing bins and garbage cans. man's voice states: Daly, Colin Low, Don Brittain and Guy seemed exhuberant. Producer Colin Working late at night, he meshed these "People who have made no attempt Glover, who served as his defenders, odd shapes and sounds together to to educate themselves live in a kind of since Lipsett was never very good at Filmm.aker Lois Siegel was working on create his greatest fllm , Very Nice, dissolving phantasmagoria of the world, supporting himself. a film. about Arthur Lipsett when he Very Nice, The film was composed al­ that is, they completely forget what Tom Daly explains: "In the early '60s died. most entirely of stills and cost about happened last Tuesday (A series of vari- experimemal film was an essential part 10/Cinema Canada - October 1986 p , • E x E R I M E N A L • of the National Film Board. As a pro­ over 200 prints, which was a good sel­ the NFB, so was financially all right for ducer, I was more an editor of ideas ler in those days. The film was sup­ a while. The Canada Council asked him rather than an inventor. I had a flair for ported internally by Tom Daly, who was to be on a jury. It was the only spinoff recognizing creativity in others. My re­ a real strength to Arthur," Gordon Mar­ from his film career he ever agreed to. lationship with Arthur was an arms­ tin adds. "But some people at the Board He wanted to make collages and stay length relationship. He had a special couldn't understand what Lipsett was . away from film for a while. bent for unused sound tracks of the doing, and they felt threatened." Even­ In the fall 1972, he applied for a world. He especially savoured funny tually Tom Daly too came under Canada Council grant from the Visual and odd events; for example, a narrator bureaucratic pressure. Arts Section to do collages and murals. ( (Stanley Jackson) making mistakes and "If you look back now, historically he Ironically, after having been a jury . ~ laughing while being recorded. Initially was really anticipating the world of member, he didn't get the grant. He had Arthur's films weren't a problem be­ moving images we know today, where no previous record as a 'visual artist,' cause his films weren't expensive." we can flip back and forth on the TV be­ and it was difficult to switch disciplines. Lipsett was aware of the experimen­ tween 30- channels," Martin explains. Then he made a film called Strange tal films being made in the 1950's. "Guy "Arthur was using film in basic linear Codes, which was shot by his friend Viau, whose films became the start of form and was still creating multiple im­ Henry Zemel. "I tried to get the NFB to ~ the Cinematheque, had a fantastic per­ agery. His images and sounds would distribute it," says Mark Slade, "which ii sonal collection. We used to go over create after-images which would carry didn't happen. There are film scholars::J c and see films by Maya Deren, Bruce over as bridges to other sequences." who would like to see an artist's work in .~ Connor, Kenneth Anger," recalls Judith "Arthur was not appreciated by the block, and this film would inter est~ Sandiford, Arthur's girlfriend for 11 people who had the power to give op­ them." o years. "Arthur especially liked Anger's portunities to make another film ," Mark Lipsett's world shifted. 2 , Inauguration of the Pleasure Slade adds. "They would no longer give "He insisted that everything had a CL .... --~~~-~------------,­ Dome." him a budget unless he would make his sound or a force field," explains San- Lipsett's friends were concerned Many have called Lipsett a genius, but films differently. But Lipsett was a film diford. "He had that kind of intensified when his life began to disintegrate. To­ genius too is human. As he moved more poet. Rather than make mediocre films, perception of things. I didn't know any- ronto filmmaker Martin Lavut remem­ and more into his films, the messages he accepted a job editing travel films. one who paid that much attention to bers coming home and discovering him seemed to become more obscure to the "I remember one of his jobs required the world. It was this intense capacity sitting on the floor surrounded by all outside world. Distributors labeled his that he edit the flies and bugs out of a for observation that later became un­ the electrical appliances in the house, films "difficult." Management at the film for Northern Affairs," Slade con­ bearable for Arthur.
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