The Cage

A silent film opens in a studio where an artist is seated and a nude model stands. A page burns, paper cutouts appear, and images become distorted. The artist removes his eye, which falls from his hand and rolls as it continues to see the spinning images. A man falls, and objects from the studio crash onto him, though he is not the artist. A woman receives assistance from a man in a lab coat, but he and the man on the floor fight over a shotgun. Outside in the city, people and cars move in reverse. On the street, those from the studio chase a woman who has stolen leeks. In the backward cityscape, they move forward, running toward a seaside amusement park. The artist follows, his head in a bird cage, and ends up with the woman who went for help—or perhaps he does not.