The singular event that erupts at the end has often been characterized as a brief, momentary (re-)assertion of one's autonomy from the oppressive mundanity of labour - an emancipatory albeit destructive act. There is however a sense that Seyrig feels most at ease when she is precisely going through her chores inattentively, whereas the few moments that punctuate - those scenes where she literally does "nothing"/being out-of-sync with her mundane routines - are also those where she appears to be…
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A Man Escaped 1956
The will of man reflected in his hands and inner voice - of description and of expression. This is not dualism but a Spinozist parallelism that correlates the visible image (of the present) and the invisible sound (of the past & future) without collapsing one into the other. When we observe that the Bressionian style is 'austere', what we mean is that he traces out the material and the ideal that form the two parts of reality. Thus believing as much in the action as in the thought of men, he also believed in the image as in the sound of cinema.
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'Til Madness Do Us Part 2013
"The repetition of daily life amplifies the existence of time. And when time stops, life appears." Wang Bing
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Near Death 1989
Wiseman's fascination with institutions and the forces which underpin their day to day function now centered around the decision-making process in his masterpiece, Near Death. The negotiation between four interlocutors - the patient, relatives, nurses and physicians - as a perpetually on-going process which is radically subjected to change. A decision that is as paradoxical as a non-decision, especially the case when it could determine the outcome of life and death. In a sense, there's a metaphysical point to be made regarding any form of decision as radically uncertain and its relation to justice as an impossibility.
