Heaven and Earth Magic

{{Infobox film

| name = Heaven and Earth Magic

| image = Heavenearth2.jpg

| caption = Film still from Heaven and Earth Magic

| director = Harry Everett Smith

| producer = Harry Everett Smith

| editing = Harry Everett Smith

| studio = Mystic Fire Video

| distributor = Mystic Fire Video

| released = {{Film date|1962|01|01|United States}}

| runtime = 66 minutes{{sfn|Marcus|2011|p=106}}

| country = United States

| language = English

}}

Heaven and Earth Magic (also known as Number 12,[https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2005/experimental-cinema/harry_smith/ Alchemical Transformations: The Abstract Films of Harry Smith – Senses of Cinema] The Magic Feature, or Heaven and Earth Magic Feature) is a 1962 American avant-garde independent[https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film541638.html FilmAffinity] cutout animation film directed by visual artist, filmmaker and mystic Harry Everett Smith. Jonas Mekas gave the film its title Heaven and Earth Magic in 1964/65.

Plot

Harry Smith stated of Heaven and Earth Magic: "The first part depicts the heroine's toothache consequent to the loss of a valuable watermelon, her dentistry and transportation to heaven. Next follows an elaborate exposition of the heavenly land in terms of Israel, Montreal and the second part depicts the return to earth from being eaten by Max Müller on the day Edward the Seventh dedicated the Great Sewer of London."{{Cite web |url=https://filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu/events/2007/no-12-heaven-and-earth-magic |title=No. 12: Heaven and Earth Magic | Film Studies Center | University of Chicago |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612225037/https://filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu/events/2007/no-12-heaven-and-earth-magic |archive-date=12 June 2010 |url-status=dead}}

Production

The film used cut-outs created from 19th-century catalogues.[https://harrysmitharchives.com/product/heaven-and-earth-magic/ Harry Smith Archives][https://www.jstor.org/stable/1211787 Mind, Medium and Metaphor in Harry Smith's Heaven and Earth Magic on JSTOR]

=Music=

The film is accompanied by a musique concrète score featuring the noises of water, clocks and sound effects albums.{{cite web |last1=Walters |first1=John L. |title=Now that's what I call folk music! |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/now-that-s-what-i-call-folk-music-1103335.html |website=The Independent |access-date=9 October 2022 |date=30 June 1999}} John Waters of The Independent described it as "the sort of soundtrack you could put together in a hotel room", noting that "Smith lived at the Chelsea Hotel, rent unpaid, for much of that time."

Reception and legacy

Fred Camper from Chicago Reader praised the film's artistic style, calling it "a mysterious world of alchemical transformations in which objects suggest a multitude of possibilities."{{sfn|Camper|2020}} Time Out Magazine offered the film similar praise, comparing it to the works of Max Ernst and Georges Méliès.{{sfn|TimeOut 2014}}

It is listed in the film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, noting the film as director Harry Smith's magnum opus, and saying "Incomplete, deeply idiosyncratic, rearranged from materials taken largely from an earlier period —a Victorian-era catalogue— it is explicitly "folk" in nature."{{sfn|Schneider|2013|p=392}} Writing in 1999 for The Independent, Waters noted that "Smith's stop-frame animations look remarkably similar to Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations made a few years later".

A still from the movie was used as the album art for Slowdive’s 2017 self-titled album.

References

=Citations=

Sources

=Books=

{{cite book|last=Marcus|first=Greil|title=The Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hpWUkJlJYRAC&pg=PA106|date=April 26, 2011|publisher=Picador|isbn=978-1-4299-6158-5}}
{{cite book|ref={{sfnref|Schneider|2013|p=392}}|author=Steven Jay Schneider|title=1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GFEemQEACAAJ|year=2013|publisher=Barron's|isbn=978-0-7641-6613-6}}

=Websites=

{{cite web|last1=Camper|first1=Fred|title=Heaven and Earth Magic|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/heaven-and-earth-magic/Film?oid=1051545|website=ChicagoReader.com|date=26 October 1985 |publisher=The Chicago Reader|access-date=February 10, 2020|ref={{sfnref|Camper|2020}}}}
{{cite web|title=Heaven and Earth Magic 1962, directed by Harry Smith|url=https://www.timeout.com/us/film/heaven-and-earth-magic|website=TimeOut.com|date=13 March 2014 |publisher=Time Out Magazine|access-date=February 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140417173725/https://www.timeout.com/us/film/heaven-and-earth-magic|archive-date=April 17, 2014|ref={{sfnref|TimeOut 2014}}}}