Moods of the Sea

{{Infobox film

| name = Moods of the Sea

| image = File:Moods of the Sea title card.png

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| director = Slavko Vorkapich
John Hoffman

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| music = Felix Mendelssohn

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| released = {{Film date|1979}}

| runtime = 10 minutes

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Moods of the Sea (1941) is a non-narrative experimental film by Slavko Vorkapich and John Hoffman, set to the music of Felix Mendelssohn known as the Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) Overture.

The film is considered to be an early example of American avant-garde and experimental film. It is currently held in the Vorkapich – Hoffman Collection at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.{{Cite web|title=USC Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive » SLAVKO VORKAPICH – JOHN HOFFMAN COLLECTION|url=https://www.uschefnerarchive.com/project/slavko-vorkapich-john-hoffman-collection/|access-date=2021-03-16|website=USC|language=en-US}}

Synopsis

Moods of the Sea contains no dialogue and features footage of the sea and surrounding wildlife. Examples of the "moods" of the sea include waves crashing against a rocky cliff and calmly lapping at a beach and rocks.

Production

The short film was created around 1941; some sources list the creation date as around 1940-1942.{{Cite book|last1=Dixon|first1=Wheeler W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1g2yO_Za3TUC&dq=%22moods+of+the+sea%22+vorkapich&pg=PA32|title=Experimental Cinema: The Film Reader|last2=Foster|first2=Gwendolyn Audrey|date=2002|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-27787-7|language=en}} Vorkapich's title card for the short states that it was copyrighted in 1942.{{Cite book|last1=Hoffman|first1=John|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1035150382|title=Moods of the Sea.|last2=Vorkapich|first2=Slavko|last3=Filmmakers Showcase (Firm)|last4=Kanopy (Firm)|date=2018|oclc=1035150382}}

Release and restoration

Vorkapich was unable to release Moods of the Sea upon completing it alongside Hoffman, due to a lack of funding and studio interest.{{Cite journal|last=Chinen Biesen|first=Sheri|date=2015|title='Kinesthesis' and Cinematic Montage: An Historical Examination of the Film Theories and Avant-Garde Mediation of Slavko Vorkapich in Hollywood|url=https://journalonarts.org/previous-issues/vol-2-1-june2015/|journal=Studies in Visual Arts and Communication|volume=2|issue=1}} The short was released in 1979 and has since received critical attention from film critics and academics.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hXnpAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Moods+of+the+Sea%22+Vorkapich|title=Sightlines|date=1979|publisher=Educational Film Library Association|pages=20|language=en}} Moods of the Sea was later restored by film preservation expert David Shepard and the UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2004, utilizing grant funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.{{Cite web|title=Moods of the Sea|url=https://nwfilm.org/films/moods-of-the-sea/|access-date=2021-03-16|website=NW Film Center|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=NFPF Films at the UCLA Festival of Preservation|url=https://www.filmpreservation.org/blog/2017/3/2/nfpf-films-at-the-ucla-festival-of-preservation|access-date=2021-03-16|website=National Film Preservation Foundation}} It was then included in the 7-disc DVD collection Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941, released in October 2005.{{Cite web|last=Sinnott|first=John|date=November 7, 2005|title=Unseen Cinema (review)|url=https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/18547/unseen-cinema/|access-date=2021-03-16|website=DVD Talk}}

Moods of the Sea has screened at multiple film festivals that included the UCLA Festival of Preservation, Musée de l'Orangerie, and the 2013 Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival.{{Cite web|title=The Lost Moment|url=https://www.eastman.org/lost-moment|access-date=2021-03-16|website=George Eastman Museum|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2013|title=Moods of the Sea|url=http://old.ji-hlava.com/database/movie/12902%7CMoods-of-the-Sea|access-date=2021-03-16|website=Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival}}{{Cite web|title=American Cinema 1940 -1950|url=https://www.musee-orangerie.fr/en/event/american-cinema-1940-1950|access-date=2021-03-16|website=Musée de l'Orangerie}}

Reception

The film is considered to be an early example of American avant-garde and experimental film by critics such as Jan-Christopher Horak.{{Cite journal|last=Helmreich|first=Stefan|date=2018|title=Massive movie waves and the anthropic ocean|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0539018418783073|journal=Social Science Information|language=en|volume=57|issue=3|pages=494–521|doi=10.1177/0539018418783073|s2cid=150218692|issn=0539-0184}} Horak has stated that "True to Vorkapich’s interest in montage, the images from the constantly moving camera are cut precisely to the music, and each sequence reaches a rhythmic crescendo with the melody, emphasizing the subjective nature of the camera’s point of view."{{Cite book|last=Horak|first=Jan-Christopher|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bOXoB01iDJ0C&dq=%22moods+of+the+sea%22+vorkapich&pg=PA38|title=Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-garde, 1919-1945|date=1995|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-14684-9|language=en}} The Chicago Reader noted that the film was an example of films that "register quite differently than their makers intended: Slavko Vorkapich and John Hoffman's impressionistic, somewhat pompous Moods of the Sea (1942) tries to marry ocean imagery with the Mendelssohn on its sound track (crashing waves for loud sections, birds for calm ones), and while it's hard to take as seriously as it seems to demand, it fascinates by pushing the visualization of music to such an extreme."{{Cite web|last=Camper|first=Fred|title=Light Rhythms: Melodies & Montages|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/light-rhythms-melodies-and-montages/Film?oid=1057788|access-date=2021-03-16|website=Chicago Reader|date=26 October 1985|language=en}}

Charles Silver, the curator for the Museum of Modern Art's department of film, compared Moods of the Sea to others shown by the museum, specifically Jean Epstein’s Le Tempestaire and Arne Sucksdorff’s Trut! (The Sea Hawk).{{Cite web|last=Silver|first=Charles|title=California Dreaming: The American Avant-Garde, 1942–58|url=https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2013/04/23/california-dreaming-the-american-avant-garde-194258/|access-date=2021-03-16|website=MoMA}}

Legacy

Vorkapich's experimental films, including Moods of the Sea, were an influence on film student and future director George Lucas.{{Cite book|last=Jones|first=Brian Jay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wPXhCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22moods+of+the+sea%22+vorkapich&pg=PT55|title=George Lucas: A Life|date=2016-12-06|publisher=Little, Brown|isbn=978-0-316-25745-9|language=en}}