Gianfranco Baruchello

Released in 1964 by Italian artists Gianfranco Baruchello and Alberto Griffi, La Verifica Incerta is a landmark example of the fertile overlap between art and cinema. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp and supported by John Cage, the film was premiered in Paris at La Cinémathèque française and in New York at The Museum of Modern Art. An assemblage of extracts taken from 450,000 feet of footage purchased by the artists before their destruction, La Verifica Incerta is one of the very first examples of a film using found footage—a schizophrenic yet ironic kaleidoscope about mass cinema and B-movies, an encyclopedia of leftovers and a deconstructed attempt to rediscover Hollywood. The DVD comprises the 35-minute-long film plus a recent (filmed) interview with Gianfranco Baruchello. It is accompanied by a booklet that contains texts by Baruchello and Carla Subrizi, as well as numerous documents (photographs, press clippings) about the film, its production, context and reception, in and since 1964.