Crush Proof

Nico: Evening of Light

Shot as a proposed short film behind Iggy Pop's Ann Arbor, MI estate and summarily rejected by Elektra Records as promotional material for Nico's 1968 album, The Marble Index, Evening of Light is a gothic fantasy in a barren cornfield. Nico's song of the same name accompanies the eerie visuals.

Stir Crazy

New Yorkers Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe have no jobs and no prospects, so they decide to flee the city and find work elsewhere, landing jobs wearing woodpecker costumes to promote the opening of a bank. When their feathery costumes are stolen and used in a bank robbery, they no longer have to worry about employment — they're sent to prison.

North Star: Mark di Suvero

North Star: Mark di Suvero is a 1977 documentary film about Mark di Suvero that was produced by François de Menil and Barbara Rose. Born in 1933, di Suvero has become one of the most recognized sculptors of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From about 1975 to 1977, fairly early in di Suvero's long career, filmmaker de Menil and art historian Rose produced this film, which was characterized at the time as "a tribute to the extraordinary work and life of the innovative American sculptor of monumental but delicate constructions." The film shows di Suvero making and installing several of his very large sculptures, and incorporates informal interviews of di Suvero, his mother, and others involved in his career and life at that time. From 1971 to 1975 di Suvero, an American, lived in a self-imposed exile in France in protest of US involvement in war in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, and the filming spans the end of his exile and his return to New York.

HON

Filmic portrait of Niki de Saint Phalle's HON, a temporary indoor sculpture installation for the Moderna Museet of Stockholm.

Niki de Saint Phalle

François de Menil and Monique Alexandre's short portrait of artist Niki de Saint Phalle, shot in 16mm, 1982.

Tinguely: A Kinetic Cosmos

Investigating Tinguely’s working methods, his art, and his inspiration, this film records the artist at work over a ten-year period and documents the design and construction of his monumental sculpture, Le Cyclop. — Anthology Film Archives

Max Ernst Hanging

In this revealing documentary, patron, collector, and curator Dominique de Menil hangs the 1973 exhibition "Inside the Sight," in conversation with Max Ernst, the 20th-century Surrealist artist. From installation to opening party, the events that transpire, as captured by filmmakers John and Francois de Menil, provide a rare and intimate glimpse into the process of making an exhibition.