Country: Italy
Year: 2004
Duration: 71'


The film that concludes the First World trilogy. From the emblems of totalitarianism to the human suffering of the individual. The representation of a man at the end of the war as a victim of violence, full of anger. An anatomical catalog of the wounded body. The effect of the conflict on children between 1919-21. From the deconstruction to the artificial reconstruction of the human body. But what kind of humanity is this, capable of forgetting and allowing such horrors to be perpetrated once again?

"Once again we approach our chosen subjects with the 'suffering,' the unprecedented pain in the documentary images that were filmed after WWI with an 'analytic camera' (which re-films, changes the tempo and the rhythm of the images, the details, the color, reframing and giving new meaning to the context). We are trying to give an identity to these forgotten, anonymous people, for whom we have no name, no location where they were injured, no indications about their life. Their identity is revealed by the gestures, the looks, their expression, details, fleeting objects in the constant passage of cinematographic time. Silent expressions of rage and embarrassment at being forced to pose for a so-called 'scientific and medical' camera. The impossibility of hiding the signs of war on their bodies. On the contrary, forced to put them on show. […] Through the Archives, we continue to refer to the present. The original negative which filmed the fall of the soldiers during the First World War is compared to images of present-day wars, it is the cinematographic prototype. We search in the dark for frames, oppressed by the sinister flashes of what is happening around the world.' (Y. Gianikian, A. Ricci Lucchi).

Biography

film director

Yervant Gianikian

Yervant Gianikian (1942), of Armenian descent, studied architecture in Venice. After moving to Milan with Angela Ricci Lucchi, they started focusing on cinema in the mid-70s, making independent and experimental productions, including the screening-performances of “scented films” and, later on, the manual manipulation of archive footage from die-toning to slow motion and various editing combinations. Their films have been screened in some of the most prestigious festivals and museums around the world. They last participated to the Torino Film Festival in 2009 with Electric Fragments N. 6 - Diario 1989. Dancing in the Dark.

FILMOGRAFIA

Erat Sora (cm, 1975), Catalogo comparativo (cm, 1975), Cataloghi non è altro gli odori che sente (cm, 1976), Profumo (cm, 1977), Un prestigiatore una miniaturista (cm, 1978), Milleunanotte (1979), Essence d’absynthe (cm, 1981), Das Lied von der Erde - Gustav Mahler (cm, 1982), Dal polo all’equatore (1986), Frammenti (1987), Passion (cm, 1988), Uomini anni vita (1990), Diario africano (cm, 1994), Aria (cm, 1994), Prigionieri della guerra (1995), Lo specchio di Diana (mm, 1996), Nocturne (cm, 1997), Io ricordo (cm, 1997), Su tutte le vette è pace (1998), Inventario balcanico (2000), Images d’Orient - Tourisme vandale (2001), Corpi. Frammenti elettrici n. 3 (cm, 2002), Rom (Uomini). Frammenti elettrici n. 1 (cm, 2002), Oh! Uomo (2004), Ghiro Ghiro Tondo (2007), Frammenti elettrici n. 6 - Diario 1989. Dancing in the Dark (2009), Pays barbare (2013).

Angela Ricci Lucchi

Angela Ricci Lucchi (Lugo di Romagna, 1942) studied art in Austria with Oskar Kokoschka. After moving to Milan with Yarvant Gianikian, they started focusing on cinema in the mid-70s, making independent and experimental productions, including the screening-performances of “scented films” and, later on, the manual manipulation of archive footage from die-toning to slow motion and various editing combinations. Their films have been screened in some of the most prestigious festivals and museums around the world. They last participated to the Torino Film Festival in 2009 with Electric Fragments N. 6 - Diario 1989. Dancing in the Dark.

FILMOGRAFIA

Erat Sora (cm, 1975), Catalogo comparativo (cm, 1975), Cataloghi non è altro gli odori che sente (cm, 1976), Profumo (cm, 1977), Un prestigiatore una miniaturista (cm, 1978), Milleunanotte (1979), Essence d’absynthe (cm, 1981), Das Lied von der Erde - Gustav Mahler (cm, 1982), Dal polo all’equatore (1986), Frammenti (1987), Passion (cm, 1988), Uomini anni vita (1990), Diario africano (cm, 1994), Aria (cm, 1994), Prigionieri della guerra (1995), Lo specchio di Diana (mm, 1996), Nocturne (cm, 1997), Io ricordo (cm, 1997), Su tutte le vette è pace (1998), Inventario balcanico (2000), Images d’Orient - Tourisme vandale (2001), Corpi. Frammenti elettrici n. 3 (cm, 2002), Rom (Uomini). Frammenti elettrici n. 1 (cm, 2002), Oh! Uomo (2004), Ghiro Ghiro Tondo (2007), Frammenti elettrici n. 6 - Diario 1989. Dancing in the Dark (2009), Pays barbare (2013).

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