Dali in New York
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In the morning, we arrived at Philippe Halsmann’s photographic studio. Halsmann had photographed Dali many times before, perhaps his best known image being the one with a black cat flying through the air towards Dali, together with a bucketful of water. In swept Dali. Jane sat in a corner wearing dark Dior glasses, cautiously observed by Dali as if she were a dangerous animal. We turned on the camera, ready for anything. Dali lay himself down in a makeshift coffin. To protect his face from the ants he was lightly greased with Vaseline. Then we covered him from head to toe with hundred dollar bills and coins. He turned his head towards me as if in explanation, and said simply, “Dali loves money” Halsmann mounted a stepladder, clutching a hasselblad camera. Mrs Halsmann delicately placed a swan’s egg on Dali’s mouth. The ocelot was let loose and prowled around Dali, sniffing at his face and gently touching him with lethally extended claws. Dali pressed his index finger against the egg. “Wait!” yelled Halsmann, “Wait!” screamed Mrs. Halsmann. “Now!” yelled Halsmann. “Now!” screamed Mrs Halsmann. Dali crushed the swan’s egg and out crawled hundreds of vicious looking black ants. The startled ocelot came in for a yet closer look. I was frightened that the creature might bite him, but actually the ocelot looked very anxious. Dali looked positively ghastly, with broken eggshell and ants crawling all over his face. Flash, flash, flash went the Hasselblad. Dali raised his silver handled ebony walking stick into a series of jerky positions, then this spooky apparition raised the top half of his body from the coffin. Everyone in the room applauded this piece of theater, but to me it looked as if he might die at any moment. As I Helped Dali to his feet, the bloody ants ran all over me. “Is okay, Jackus Bondus, is okay everything?” Dali enquired. Extract from "Mad Jack" the autobiography of Jack Bond
This film has never been screened
Microcinema Interview/Article:
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