{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1741676"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1741676/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NH6700/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NH6700/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2023NH6700","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1741676","accessionNumber":"S.85-2023","objectType":"Storyboard","titles":[{"title":"French Windows","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"The storyboard for the music film <i>French Windows</i>, 1972. \n\nIan Emes (1949-2023) was a film  director and a pioneering animator, especially in the British music industry, who helped to give rise to  the popularity of animated music videos. He has worked with some of the biggest names in Rock  and Pop, including Duran Duran, Paul McCartney, and Mike Oldfield. As well as animations, he has  directed his own films that have won numerous international awards, including three BAFTAS (1994,  2009, 2011), a Palme d'Or (1979) and an Oscar nomination (1984). Emes’ work is most closely  associated with the rock band Pink Floyd. \r\n\n<i>French Windows</i>  is a visual interpretation of the song 'One of These Days' – an instrumental track containing a single dark-humoured lyric: \"One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces\" (a  rare vocal from Pink Floyd’s drummer, Nick Mason). The film opens with a silhouetted figure in a  bare monochromatic room, seated next to a set of French windows from which the piece takes its name. Emes then takes the viewer through these windows, into a world that erupts with colour and  four dancers against ever-changing backgrounds full of abstract architecture, geometric patterns and surreal spatial perspectives. Eventually the opening silhouette falls through these psychedelic  patterns into a cloudy night sky. The powerful opening and closing imagery appear to be a clear visual nod to both <i>The Wizard of Oz</i>  and <i>Alice in Wonderland.</i>\r\n\r\nThe striking visual imagery of <i>French Windows</i> encapsulates the psychedelic trends of the  early 1970s in popular culture, and a wider legacy from historical artworks and movements. Emes  studied Surrealism and Dadaism at university, inspired by the works of Magritte, Dali, and De  Chirico. Emes’ art, including <i>French Windows</i>, incorporates ideas from these artists, as well as  the optical illusions and contradictory spaces of Escher. Emes’ experimental practice also looked to  novel visual effects of the time, including Douglas Trumbull’s recent invention of the slit-scan in  <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i>  (Kubrick, 1968) to create futuristic, abstract landscapes of transcending time. 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