On Venom and Eternity (Traite de Bave et D'Eternite)1951

Founder in 1945 of the Letterist movement, precursor to Situationism, Fluxus, conceptual art and the happening, Isidore Isou invented the "discrepant," "chiseled" cinema in his key film ON VENOM AND ETERNITY. The film created a scandal in Cannes in 1951 (the Letterists arrived uninvited but Cocteau awarded it the avant-garde prize and later designed the poster), and heralded a new approach to avant-garde film.

"The spectator must leave the cinema blind, his ears crushed, both torn asunder by this disjunction of word and image. The rupture between language and photography will form what I call DISCREPANT CINEMA. I hereby announce the manifesto of discrepant cinema!" - Isidore Isou