Joseph Cornell: Worlds in a Box (1991)

Director: Mark Stokes

This is a 1991 documentary film about the legendary artist and filmmaker, Joseph Cornell, who made those magnificent and strange collage boxes. He was also one of our great experimental filmmakers and once apparently made Salvador Dali extremely jealous at a screening of his masterpiece, Rose Hobart. In this film we get to hear people like Susan Sontag, Stan Brakhage, and Tony Curtis talk about their friendships with the artist. It turns out that Curtis was quite a collector and he seemed to have a very deep understanding of what Cornell was doing in his work.

Cast

Tony Curtis

Narrator (voice) / Self

Joseph Cornell

Self (archive footage)

Dore Ashton

Self

Stan Brakhage

Self

Rudy Burckhardt

Self

Leila E.B. Luce

Self

Brian O'Doherty

Self

James Rosenquist

Self

P. Adams Sitney

Self

Susan Sontag

Self