Secret Museums

The Films of Arthur Lipsett

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by Stephen Broomer

Type

Film Reviews

Subject

Director > Arthur Lipsett

Keywords

Arthur Lipsett, director, Canada

Publishing date

2025 (May 20, 2025)

Publisher

Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 300 pages
6 x 9 inches (15.5 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-1-77112-687-8

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Book Presentation:
When Arthur Lipsett's first film was nominated for an Academy Award in 1962, the event marked the arrival of an influential turn in cinema. The film's dark humour and dancing rhythms had captured the spirit of his times. When Lipsett committed suicide in 1986, the humour and joy of his work was eclipsed by that sardonic darkness. It all came to feel like an omen.

Secret Museums is a study in the life and work of Canadian collage filmmaker Arthur Lipsett, whose struggles with mental illness have overshadowed his vital and innovative work. Author Stephen Broomer explores the spiritual themes and formal challenges posed by Lipsett's films and the artist's absurdist, comic, beatnik sensibility. As a critical biography, Secret Museums follows the trajectory of Lipsett's life through his years as a filmmaker (1960-1975) and after, with new interpretations and analysis of his eight completed films.

In Secret Museums, Lipsett's films are recognized as riotous comedies that reflect the artist's resilience. It serves as a new interpretation of Lipsett and his films, positioning him as both a visionary force and a holy fool, illuminating fresh pathways through his work that reflect his understandings of his sources and his world.

About the Author:
Stephen Broomer is a filmmaker, writer, and video essayist based in Toronto, Canada. Broomer has been a Fulbright Scholar at University of California Santa Cruz, and he teaches courses in video essaying and Canadian experimental film at the Cinema Studies Institute at the University of Toronto.

See the publisher website: Wilfrid Laurier University Press

See the complete filmography of Arthur Lipsett on the website: IMDB ...