A seminal film in experimental cinema related to the use of found footage, “A Movie” is a compendium of the art of montage. The work of Bruce Conner always focused on editing and film stock craftsmanship, whether using found material, or material filmed by Conner himself. In fact, Curtas Vila do Conde dedicated a session to Bruce Conner, in 2011, showing how his work was a forerunner to the music video, in films such as “Breakaway” or “America is Waiting”. “A Movie” is a prime example: within the space of 11 minutes, Conner combines material from multiple sources: Hollywood movies (especially Westerns), women in sexual poses, car racing and other motor sports, the atomic bomb, and human disasters, including the bodies of soldiers killed in battle or collapsing bridges. The appropriation of material in a new context was a revolution in the way cinema looked at itself. In “A Movie”, Conner seems to want to show how moving images – or, in particular, a certain kind of cinema produced at the time – are sensationalist and can be tremendous in their impact. The exhaustive repetition of the phrase “The End” or the title of the film denotes the ontology of cinema and its spectacle. “A Movie”, as a collage film, also hints at the friction of its elements: film excerpts are juxtaposed against further film excerpts, reviving the Soviet debate about the profoundly radical character of cinematographic montage. As an opener to an archaeological session on the Audiovisual Essays, this is an essential film about the role of moving images. (DR)