At first glance one wonders what a committed leftist/Marxist like Watkins, dedicated to emphasizing man's social conditions over the individual's private life, might have to say about Expressionism. As this docu-drama unfolds it soon becomes clear - if Impressionism is about objects from the perspective of light, Expressionism is of the world by the artist not as a unified being but fragmented as micro-sensibilities shaped by milieus. The difference is crucial. While heretofore works of art extol perspectives, with vision…

The precession of the simulacra where images dizzy the subject and drive it to reproduce the signs associated with the object. A world without depth but vertiginous surfaces that slip & slide. The feigning of the depths where there is none - Scottie's condition is not just metaphorical but literal. The more he sought to manipulate the signs of his object of desire, the more he falls victim to them. Such is the death drive - both a repulsion and fascination…