movies

Impromptu is at once a transfixing audiovisual experience and a whirlwind visual history. In the short, the Spanish director María Lorenzo draws on a wide variety of animated styles and archival footage to build a tribute to ‘the forgotten parents of film’. This includes swift references to pre-cinema devices such as zoetropes and thaumatropes, film pioneers such as the Lumière brothers and Eadweard Muybridge, and visual cultures from around the world. The result feels deeply researched and yet – as the title hints at – somewhat informal, prioritising the kinetic power of moving images over a more formal exploration of their history.