Bagatelle for Willard Maas (1961)

This is a new version of the now famous film made for her husband the poet and filmmaker Returning from the Brussels fair she shot this at Versailles and the Louvre There is wit irony and prophecy here though perhaps not apparent to those who do not know Marie Menken and Willard Maas personally She says only A more serious film than ARABESQUE BAGATELLE attempts to synchronize into a lyric statement some observations on Versailles Marie Menkens fountains are the fountains of life Marie Menkens Versailles is the Versailles of death The beauty of this film is the alternation of the fountains and Versaille death Only Marie Menken would have the subtlety sensibility sesitivity receptivity to fuse and fetilize the classical paradoxes in such an immediate visual apotheosis Charles Boultenhouse