Rose Hobart

Footage selected from 'East of Borneo' and other films is arranged and edited so as to highlight actress Rose Hobart.

Joseph Cornell cut and re-edited the Universal film "East of Borneo" (1931) into one of America's most famous surrealist short films. Cornell was fascinated by the star of East of Borneo, an actress named Rose Hobart, and named his short film after her. The piece consists of snippets from East of Borneo combined with shots from a documentary film of an eclipse.

Salvador Dalí was in the audience, but halfway through the film, he knocked over the projector in a rage. "My idea for a film is exactly that, and I was going to propose it to someone who would pay to have it made," he said. "I never wrote it down or told anyone, but it is as if he had stolen it." Other versions of Dalí's accusation tend to the more poetic: "He stole it from my subconscious!" or even "He stole my dreams!" The Dali incident is interesting because when you think surreal, you think Dali or Bunuel, so this seems oddly appropriate. Even stranger is that this is now the way Rose Hobart is remembered. She had a long career, was a SAG official, wrote an autobiography... but if you look her up, you'll instead find this film. An odd tribute from an obsessed fan is her legacy.