Duchamp made Anemic Cinema by filming nine rotating cardboard disks with spirals drawn
on them and ten rotating disks inscribed with verbal puns. Alternating on screen,
these disks turn in different directions and at varying speeds. The disks with spirals
seem to pulse in and out, as if they were three-dimensional, while those with puns
must be read, which emphasizes the flatness of their surfaces. Yet both kinds make
sexual allusions, those showing spirals through their visual pulsation and those showing
texts through the frequent sexual connotations of their puns. The two words of the
film’s title are both an anagram and a near palindrome, being readable almost identically
forward and backward. The film’s copyright bears the signature of Rrose Sélavy, Duchamp’s
fictional female alter ego, as well as his/her thumbprint.
The Museum of Modern Art. “Marcel Duchamp. Anémic Cinéma. 1926.” Accessed January
31, 2024. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/304633.