Ensemble for Somnambulists (1951)
Ensemble for Somnambulists was a film Maya Deren made while teaching a workshop at the Toronto Film Society. It was never completed, and is officially "unpublished," but this title has been restored and it screens occasionally along with her other films. It is sort of a preliminary sketch for The Very Eye of Night. ~ David Lewis, Rovi
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Let's be realistic.
Absolutely Fantastic
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Maya Deren's "Ensemble for Somnambulists" is her seventh effort, and there's no question about it that I liked it better than her previous "Meditation on Violence", though the depth of what's here isn't much and nothing really changes in these six minutes of footage. Apparently this film is kind of like a primitive experiment with photographic negative that later resulted in Deren's "The Very Eye of Night" which I still have yet to see. It's really more like artistic scribbles and can't really be judged in its unfinished state.The "unfinished" film features some ghostly-looking dancers performing ballet and floating around in a black void. That's basically it and there's no hidden narrative as can be discovered in the director's previous work. I still thought it was beautiful and interesting even if it's not exactly what you'd call avant-garde. In the end it's mainly worthwhile for dance fanatics and Maya Deren fans, but it's still interesting.
"Ensemble for Somnambulists" is not only a bit of a word game, it is also a Maya Deren film from 1951. The fact that she was not too prolific during the 10 years before her death makes this one of her last projects. We see a night sky and we see people dancing in front of it. Deren uses lots of contrast again between black-and-white as she frequently does. This film here reminded me a lot of "The Very Eye of Night", a movie she made 6 years later. So if you enjoyed this one here, maybe check out that one. Unfortunately, I did not really enjoy it and the only really positive thing I can say here is that it was over so quickly. At 6 minutes, it's one of Deren's shortest works and more than the first minute is opening credits already. All in all, not recommended.