BLACKOUT

by Michael MAZIÈRE
2000 / Video / b&w / sound / 1S / 10' 00

A love story. Set in a cinematic world of desire, memory and beauty, BLACKOUT is a dialogue of loss between a man and a woman. The struggle for communication and intimacy is conveyed through re-edited voices from a classic hollywood film combined with deeply poetic imagery. In BLACKOUT, it seems that individual emotional experiences are conditioned and read through the mediated and collective world of cinema.

"In BLACKOUT, Maziere captures the existentialist longing and unrequited desire which infuse many examples of classic European film, quoting from Louis Malle’s LE FEU FOLLET and Antonioni’s L'AVVENTURA, amongst others.

Slow motion and skillful editing accentuate the melancholy of these fragments from which emerges, paradoxically, a narrative of intimacy and longing. The locations and places depicted – abandoned interiors filled with private posessions, airports, city streets – are charged with an intensity which accentuates a sense of alienation and helplessness. Fragments of dialogue speak of things as they were or could have been, further reinforcing a sense of loss and despair coupled with persistence and hope. Images such as the closing sequence of an escalator going up towards daylight, or the sparkling sea seen from an airplane window, exemplify the bittersweet mood of the work." – Sotiris Kyriacou

1 PRINT IN DISTRIBUTION


distribution format Digital file on server (SD)
screen 1,37 - Standard (single screen)
speed 25 fps
sound sound
rental fee 44,00 €