Background

French composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) created the ballet music piece "Parade" in 1916, at the age of 50, and it was first performed in 1917, with Jean Cocteau and Pablo Picasso taking part to its creation on the scene. The ballet was introduced by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who described it by using the term "surrealism" for the very first time. Mixing quotes from Satie’s essays with the music performed by a Dutch jazz band, the Willem Breuker Kollektief, this film is an animated re-creation of "realist ballet" images going beyond reality.