Edson Barrus' film concentrates on three cities: Sao Paolo, Paris and Yokohama. Filmed entirely with a mobile phone, From the Cellphone II takes us from one city to another, via their respective subway systems; from sun-soaked Sao Paolo to a grey and rainy evening in Paris.
The alignment of gravestones in a Shinto graveyard evokes the linear pavement motifs of the Avenida Paulista, which in turn reinforce a pixillated choreography which blurs the image, emphasizing the Brownien movement of the pixels themselves. The image disintegrates into a purely digital matter which, dislocating itself from the image, opens up a whole new parallel world.
This meandering journey articulates around the concept of transport: the transport of humans, whether in cars, subways or escalators; the transport and exhibition of merchandise, the "urban ants" (to quote another film by Edson Barrus) who push and pull huge cargoes of miscellaneous objects, the street vendors ... The transport of image and voice is included in this generalised vision of transit: cellphones and cameras become incontrovertible appendices of the gestuality of survival in an urban territory.
This multi-directional human swarm is echoed by a sonic turbulence (conceived by Giuliano Obici) which autonomizes the muffled or vituperative commotion of the original recordings, creating new motifs which propel us towards more distant shores. These sonic motifs are schematically similiar to the tapestry of pixels which dematerializes the image: a proliferation of colorful noises, more or less opportune depending on the situation. Audible fragments of dialogue reinforce this de-realization, which is itself the reflection of a constant flux (eg: French dialogue bursts in upon a shot of Yohohama). The sequences of the film are both built upon and deconstructed by the sound-track. We recognize different leitmotifs, certain orchestral harmonies which jostle the sense of trepidation provoked by the city (recalled to mind by the slabs of metal which cover the potholes in Sao Paolo).
The only framework the film adheres to is that of the film-maker's perambulations, as he captures random gestures and moments in time, from various cities, as he passes through ...(yann beauvais)
1 PRINT IN DISTRIBUTION
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distribution format |
Digital file on server (PAL) |
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screen |
4/3 (single screen) |
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speed |
25 fps |
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sound |
sound |
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rental fee |
139,00 € |
