ART-ZINE REFLECT


REFLECT... КУАДУСЕШЩТ # 18 ::: ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


Elvina ZELTSMAN, Rafael LEVCHIN. FESTIVAL AND ARRABAL…



aвтор визуальной работы - E.Zeltsman (Fernando Arrabal in person)



or should we say, Arrabal and festivals? Because it was some sort of collaboration between Chicago’s First Festival of Contemporary Plays from France and The Chicago Humanities Festival, so we could see (and watch!) THE GARDEN OF DELIGHTS, the play about a famous actress and her schizophrenic journey to self discovery, by Fernando Arrabal in Trap Door Theatre (where we watched two years ago his THE ARCHITECT AND EMPEROR OF ASSYRIA) and we have watched his films, VIVA LA MUERTE (Long Live a Death) and I WIIL WALK LIKE A CRAZY HORCE. And we met in person Arrabal (b.1932; http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800102331&cf=gen&intl=us), poet, playwright, filmmaker, novelist, essayist, provocateur, surrealist, cofounder together with Alejandro Jodorowsky (http://www.hotweird.com/jodorowsky/) and Roland Topor (http://www.the-artists.org/artist/Topor_Roland.cfm) of post-surrealistic “Panic movement” in 1962, and, possibly, a genius. The first film is poetic and nightmarish tale about Fando, teenager in Spain just after civil war. This was incredible, really: blood, lust, war, sadism, horror of female figure, some sort of terrible goddess (Astarta? Inanna?), puppet theatre, dreams and awakenings, etc, etc – even Russian music
“Katiusha” by Moroccan military orchestra! Same motifs were in the another film, but there was more sadism, more terrible conflicts between son and mother – but also very special character, who’s living in the desert thousands years, maybe saint, maybe even some god or demon, who can rule everything in the world… it was great, but previous masterpiece was better in some way, because it was more space for co-creativity for audience. Anyway, we’re very happy to knew this person and his work (as we said same thing about A.Jodorowsky couple years ago). Salud, Arrabal!..

So, Arrabal was the best, but not the last one. On the Chicago Underground Film Festival we saw ELEVATOR MOVIE by Zeb Haradon; dark psychological comedy about two individuals who get stuck in an elevator. It begins as a character comedy and becames surreal cyberpunk fantasy and Sartrean allegory. Jim (the director himself), and Lana had never met until they step into an elevator together. The elevator gets stuck between floors, and they must learn to live in this small room – hours, days, weeks… Nobody comes to let them back from this metal box. So they start to know each other and to build a new life. They have a food, and they start to have romance. Then Jim discovers that Lana has a metal vagina. Then more part of her body transform into metal… This film started us thinking, as usually, about myth, legend, and the binding forces of cultures. Transformation is very important part of mythology in every culture (person, who was your lover, or your child, or your friend today, tomorrow turns into beast, statue, objct, or demon – and what can we do?).

We saw FAUST by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, and it was, as J.Rosenbaum would say, indistinguishable and poetic (and, of course, the most interesting character was Mephisto; well, we still prefer FAUST by Svankmaier…); and also MURNAU 4 DEVILS: TRACES OF A LOST FILM (well, not so good, as we expected… to be honest, a very boring).
We saw passionate LAST TANGO IN PARIS by Bernardo Bertolucci with Maria Schneider and Marlon Brando, also his LITTLE BUDDHA (the story of origins of Buddhism for children and adults; sometimes poetically and colorful it was so close to our favorite Paradzhanov and Pazolini!), THE LAST EMPEROR, THE DREAMERS, and THE SHELTERING SKY (adaptation of Paul Bowles’s first novel, with Bowles himself participation, as if the author meets his characters; with Debra Winger and John Malkovich, and with wonderful close-ups).
We saw THE TULSE LUPER SUITCASE by Peter Greenaway (this story, covering 60 years of history, about man, who’s bigger than the world itself, is great, but we love the PILLOW BOOK and PROSPERO’S BOOKS much more!) and himself Greenaway in conversation.

And we were on the Chicago International Film Festival. The Kazakhstanian/Russian/French/
German movie SCHIZO (“Schizophrenic”) by Guka Omarova, about post-soviet criminal life at outskirt of former empire. Terrible social life combines with some unpredictbl optimism. The film is tough and magical, heartbreaking and raw. And what will be with this young and talented unprofessional actor, who plaied protagonist Mustafa, even after?
The French MA MERE by Christophe Honore is dark and provocative art-piece about Helene, mother (Isabelle Huppert, known by beautiful and terrible THE PIANO TEACHER) and Pierre, son (Louis Garrel, we saw him in THE DREAMERS) in unusual relationship, full of lust and deviations. It wasn’t easy to see it, but it was good not to miss this rituals of eroticism.
The Japanese THE TASTE OF TEA by Katsuhito Ishii is sort of surreal dramedy, influenced by Japanimation, about small family in small village, with small girls in the centre of this strange, but in some way lovely world.





 следующая 4th page of cover #18 (25)
оглавление
предыдущая Kolter M. CAMPBELL. A WHIRLWIND OF SHAPE AND COLOR





blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah




πτ 18+
(ↄ) 1999–2024 Полутона

Поддержать проект
Юmoney