Bruce Conner _ Valse Triste

Bruce Conner_Valse Triste. 1978, 16mm, b&w/sound, 5min.

"VALSE TRISTE is frankly and gracefully autobiographical of Conner's Kansas boyhood. Here, the period of the 1940s of his source materials parallels his own life experiences.

"A line of dark, wet cars files across a flooded road; a man and a boy ceremoniously burn leaves; a businessman at his desk turns to look over his shoulder to the photo of a locomotive on the wall behind him; a medium shot of an engineer in the cab of his locomotive; a shard of rock shears from a quarry wall and plunges into water ...." - Anthony Reveaux

Nostalgic recreation of dreamland Kansas 1947 in Toto. Theme music from I Love a Mystery radio programs (Jack, Doc, and Reggie confront the enigmatic lines of railroad trains, sheep, black cars, women exercising in an open field, grandma at the farm ...) Meanwhile, 13-year-old boy confronts reality. Sibelius grows old in Finland and becomes a national monument.