One of the most profound themes throughout Sonbert’s work is that of love between couples in all its pitfalls and perfect moments. He expresses this theme not only between his protagonists onscreen, but also in the relationship between his ever-roving hand-held camera and the human subjects within his field of vision.
The Bad and the Beautiful. 1967. USA. Directed by Warren Sonbert. 34 min. 16mm.
The Bad and the Beautiful is noteworthy for Sonbert’s use of in-camera editing, in which he assembled together individual 100’ camera rolls he shot into a series of mini-narratives. Each camera roll sequence captures an individual couple in unusually intimate, quotidian moments: eating, making love, dancing, and whiling away the time.
Tuxedo Theater. 1969. USA. Directed by Warren Sonbert. 21 min. 16mm.
In 1968, Sonbert began using his hand-held Bolex camera to enlarge his field of vision beyond New York, recording footage as he traveled around the world. He wrote, “once you’ve got all those variations in one country it multiplies itself in conjunction with the neighbor next door, and after that the comparisons of continents is limitless … you get what is unique about wherever you are, but most important, how everything is really alike … how things extend from one another.“ Tuxedo Theater offers evidence of Sonbert’s first steps in developing his unique style of montage, which subsequently resulted in his magnum opus, Carriage Trade.
Program approx. 55 min.