ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the representation of bodies in Dada film, which opens onto a set of questions to do with meaning, science and Dada's relationship to the history of twentieth-century thought in France. The representation of the human body in Dada film, however, extends beyond self-indulgent abstraction and the disorientation or titillation of the audience. The end of Entr'acte, a typically playful affair, is instructive in this respect. There is a static shot of the word FIN printed onto a white paper screen that is then ripped open as Jean Borlin, a popular star of the ballet suedois, bursts through it in slow-motion and falls face down onto the ground, before a cut to him lying face down. Across its many manifestations in different genres, Dada is concerned less with the production of meaninglessness than with revelry in the endless impermanence, suggestibility and plurality of signs and meaning.
