Synopsis
A journey to Kyoto. In late autumn, as the maple leaves turn red, city dwellers cross paths in the shaded walkways of the Imperial Park.
2016 ‘Arrière-saison’ Directed by Jean-Claude Rousseau
A journey to Kyoto. In late autumn, as the maple leaves turn red, city dwellers cross paths in the shaded walkways of the Imperial Park.
That higher resolution and expanded frame is doing wonders for Rousseau. Also monumental to see him open up about his process within the film: at the end an old man walks through a frame (we’ve seen this frame before) when it suddenly swiftly pans over to another composition, following the old man into another part of the park. Rousseau’s films always look like he composes a frame and waits for something, anything to happen. But the opposite seems to be true: he composes 3-dimensionally, panning his frame wherever there’s action. This also explains how characters cross over into other vignettes. As someone who’s been filming similar things most of his life, it’s really difficult to be aware of multiple stories…
A park as a microcosmos, just like a reflection on water. Flying birds, some sit and wait for something, others on their way some place, there are some that run, others that keep stopping. But most importantly, there are people taking pictures of each other.
Jean Claude Rousseau contra qualquer forma de essência: mundos se encontram, mundos se chocam e se fundam a todo instante: demiurgos não descansam.
“What I found out while making these films is that if there is a way to find a noble composition on 16:9, it is by thinking of it as 4:3. Finding the 4:3 in the interior of it. I had always in mind the painting by Edward Hopper, which is a composition made in 16:9, Nighthawks. You see the people in the bar, sitting, and on the left side you see the street. It’s magnificent. In this 16:9 composition you can find the 4:3, it is in the bar, and to add to it there is also the exterior with the building and the street. I think this is what we should look for when shooting films on this widened format, it is of course not a new thing. We can feel an image’s justness, its nobility, on 16:9, only if it contains a 4:3 composition inside of it.”
A Japanese park in autumn, captured in Benningesque style, but with relatively shorter takes, repeated sequences, and a curious editing pattern. Strong focus on the everyday and humble. My first from Rousseau -- nothing to write home about, but I'm eager to see more.
The power of editing as if rediscovered through Griffith, the power to build the Panopticon.
Which reminded me of Hölderlin:
"Full of merit, yet poetically,
man dwells on this earth"
Viennale '17 #3
Together with Si loin, si proche and La Villa (short film). In the presence of Jean-Claude Rousseau.