Warren Sonbert's Magnum Opus CARRIAGE TRADE Plays at the Centre Pompidou

STILL: CARRIAGE TRADE (1973) BY WARREN SONBERT. SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

Today, Warren Sonbert’s film CARRIAGE TRADE — which the artist himself described as his “magnum opus” — will screen at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Sonbert’s film plays in their exhibition A History of Cinema, which “draws an alternative narrative to the dominant cinematic canons and constitutes the founding moment of the Museum’s film collection.” This exhibition was originally presented at the National Center for Contemporary Art and the Cinémathèque française in 1976, and was shown again in 1977 to mark the opening of the Pompidou. This new cycle “offers an overview of the historical collection, traveling backwards through its chronology.”

The Centre Pompidou will show the 61-minute iteration of CARRIAGE TRADE, which Sonbert released in 1973 and deemed the “final version.” As noted by the Harvard Film Archive, Sonbert’s film is “a visual journey encapsulating his travels over four continents in six years… [and] weaves that footage together with shots [he] removed from a number of his earlier films, offering the viewer multi-faceted readings of the connections between shots, including the ‘changing relations of the movement of objects, the gestures of figures, familiar worldwide icons, rituals and reactions, rhythm, spacing and density of images’.”

Among the film’s many champions was eminent critic Andrew Sarris, who wrote in Village Voice on October 11, 1973:

Warren Sonbert's trips, travels and tastes arranged musically in brilliantly framed compositions and swirling camera movements. The more familiar landmarks — The Eiffel Tower, The Arch of Triumph, the Sphinx — he encloses within the quotes of jump cuts. A fascinating hour of experimenting with the notion of using visual images as musical notes. It's been done before, but seldom with such talent and high spirits.

Among the many venues at which Sonbert’s film played was the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1973. That screening was promoted in Village Voice with an ad deeming it “one of the unique cinematic achievements of the Seventies” (visible below).

1973 VILLAGE VOICE ADVERTISEMENT PROMOTING THE SCREENING OF WARREN SONBERT’S CARRIAGE TRADE AT THE WHITNEY. SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

CARRIAGE TRADE is currently distributed on 16mm by the Film-Makers’ Cooperative in New York, Canyon Cinema in San Francisco, and Light Cone in Paris. GME is the custodian of Sonbert’s legacy and proud to represent his significant body of work.

Stay tuned for announcements about further developments in the Warren Sonbert legacy project later this year.