Rabbit’s Moon (1971)
Shot in the Films du Panthéon Studio in Paris 1950. Shooting was never completed. Anger retrieved the footage from Cinémathèque Française in 1970 and released a sixteen minute version in 1971. A seven minute version was released in 1979. Pierrot waxes romantic, entranced by the moon. Harlequin appears and bullies him, then uses a magic lantern to project an image of Columbine. Pierrot tries to court the illusory Columbine unsuccessfully, then enters a mystical moon-realm from which he returns dead.A Japanese fairy tale meets commedia dell’Arte. All in white, the naïf Pierrot lies in a wood. Doo-wop music plays as he rises, stares about, and reaches for the moon. Although music abounds and the children of the wood are there at play, Pierrot is melancholy and alone. Harlequin appears, brimming with confidence and energy. He conjures the lovely Colombina. Pierrot is dazzled. But can the course of true love run smooth?
