This book examines post-war surrealist cinema in relation to surrealism's change in direction
towards myth and magic following World War II. Intermedial and interdisciplinary the book
unites cinema studies with art history and the study of Western esotericism closely engaging
with a wide range of primary sources including surrealist journals art exhibitions and
writings. Kristoffer Noheden looks to the Danish surrealist artist Wilhelm Freddie's forays
into the experimental short film the French poet Benjamin Péret's contribution to the
documentary film L'Invention du monde the Argentinean-born filmmaker Nelly Kaplan's feature
films and the Czech animator Jan Svankmajer's work in short and feature films. The book traces
a continuous engagement with myth and magic throughout these films uncovering a previously
unknown strain of occult imagery in surrealist cinema. It broadens the scope of the study of
not only surrealist cinema but of surrealism across the art forms. Surrealism Cinema and the
Search for a New Myth will appeal to film scholars art historians and those interested in the
impact of occultism on modern culture film and the arts.
