{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Other uses|Carriage trade}} {{Infobox film | name = | image = | alt = | caption = | director = Warren Sonbert | producer = | starring = | narrator = | cinematography = | editing = | music = | studio = <!-- or: | production_companies = --> | distributor = <!-- or: | distributors = --> | released = {{Film date|1971}} | runtime = 61 minutes | country = United States | language = Silent | budget = | gross = }} '''''Carriage Trade''''' is a 1971 American experimental film directed by Warren Sonbert.
==Production== ''Carriage Trade'' was filmed over the course of six years as Sonbert brought a Bolex 16 mm camera with him on international trips.<ref name="heiler-nyt">{{cite news |last=Weiler |first=A. H. |author-link=A. H. Weiler |date=October 12, 1973 |title=Silent 'Carriage Trade' Is World of Images |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/12/archives/screen-silent-carriage-trade-is-world-of-images.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=November 21, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Gartenberg |first=Jon |year=2015 |title=A Delicate Balance: Warren Sonbert's Creative Legacy |journal=Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media |volume=56 |issue=1 |page=18|doi=10.1353/frm.2015.a579198 }}</ref> According to his program notes, the filming locations were Afghanistan, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Morocco, Nepal, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Ehrenstein |first=David |author-link=David Ehrenstein |date=October 21, 2012 |title=The Tuxedo Theater: On filmmaker Warren Sonbert |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-tuxedo-theater-on-filmmaker-warren-sonbert |magazine=Los Angeles Review of Books |access-date=November 21, 2023}}</ref>
Early titles for the film were ''The Tuxedo Theatre'', ''The Bad and the Beautiful'', and ''Tonight and Every Night''.<ref name="mekas-village-voice">{{cite news |last=Mekas |first=Jonas |author-link=Jonas Mekas |date=November 19, 1970 |title=Movie Journal |work=The Village Voice |page=43}}</ref>
==Style== The film marked a major shift in Sonbert's filmmaking. Unlike his earlier short films, which are loosely narrative works that used longer takes, ''Carriage Trade'' is a montage work built out of shorter shots.<ref name="gartenberg-framework">{{cite journal |last=Gartenberg |first=Jon |year=2015 |title=Film |journal=Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media |volume=56 |issue=1 |page=156|doi=10.1353/frm.2015.a579215 }}</ref>
==Release== A 20-minute early cut of the footage from ''Carriage Trade'', then known as ''The Tuxedo Theatre'', was shown at the Jewish Museum in New York on February 11, 1969.<ref name="gartenberg-framework"/> Sonbert screened a longer 80-minute cut in London and New York.<ref name="mekas-village-voice"/> He edited that down to a final 61-minute version which has become the most widely distributed version.<ref name="gartenberg-moving-image">{{cite journal |last=Gartenberg |first=Jon |year=2002 |title=The Fragile Emulsion |journal=The Moving Image |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=142–153}}</ref> It premiered in 1971 as part of the Museum of Modern Art's Cineprobe series.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://press.moma.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Sonbert_Overview_Screening_Schedule.pdf |title=The Experimental Narratives of Warren Sonbert |year=2023 |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=November 21, 2023}}</ref> The Whitney Museum screened it in 1973 as part of its New American Filmmakers series.<ref name="heiler-nyt"/>
''Carriage Trade'' is now part of Anthology Film Archives' Essential Cinema Repertory collection.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/about/essential-cinema |title=Essential Cinema |publisher=Anthology Film Archives |access-date=November 21, 2023}}</ref>
==Critical reception== For ''The New York Times'', critic A. H. Weiler wrote that it "makes for a slightly dizzying but colorful and far-ranging trip, [but] it also illustrates the talents of an acutely perceptive and artistic film maker."<ref name="heiler-nyt"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://canyoncinema.com/catalog/film/?i=2155 ''Carriage Trade''] at Canyon Cinema *[https://film-makerscoop.com/catalogue/warren-sonbert-carriage-trade ''Carriage Trade''] at the Film-Makers' Cooperative *{{IMDb title}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carriage Trade}} Category:1971 films Category:1971 American films Category:1970s avant-garde and experimental films Category:American avant-garde and experimental films Category:Films partially in color Category:Films shot in 16 mm film Category:Non-narrative films Category:Silent films in color Category:Surviving American silent films