Flick Review < The Seashell and the Clergyman | Antonin Artaud / Germaine Dulac, 1928

Artaud accused her of ruining his script, and on the day of the premiere at
the Ursuline Cinema, the surrealists shouted down the film.

Dulac, who tried to stay away from these conflicts, it is true, kept the dreamlike character of the script more and suppressed the eroticism and cruelty that mark Artaud’s theater and script.

But how did Artaud see the film?

“This script is not a reproduction of a dream and should not be considered as such. I would not justify the apparent lack of logical plot with the easy evasion of dreams. This scenario seeks the dark truth of the spirit in spontaneous images, which do not connect their meaning to the circumstances that develop, but to a kind of inner dynamic need for unparalleled clarity, which brings them to light.”

Stella Theodoraki, Cinematic Pioneers, 1990