Cotton Candy 22 years old

Gehr uses a mini-digital recorder to look back on the Machine Age in the form of San Francisco's soon-to-be-shuttered Musee Mecanique. For slightly more than an hour, Cotton Candy documents this venerable collection of coin-operated mechanical toys—including an entire circus—mainly in close-up, isolating particular details as he alternates between ambient and post-dubbed (or no) sound. By treating the Musee's cast of synchronized figures as puppets, the artist is making a show—but is it his or theirs? Gehr's selective take on the arcade renders it all the more spooky. There's a sense in which Cotton Candy is a gloss on the moment in The Rules of the Game when the music-box-collecting viscount unveils his latest and most elaborate acquisition. (It also brings to mind the climax of A.I.: The DV of the future tenderly regards the more human machine of the past.) (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice)

Credits

Cotton Candy Cast

Name Character
Christine Casarsa as Little Girl

Cotton Candy Crew

Name Department
Ernie Gehr as Director. He was 58 (now 81) years old Directing
Cotton Candy poster
Cotton Candy (22 years)

  • Release day: Tuesday, April 30, 2002
  • Runtime: 56 minutes