White Epilepsy

Feb 22 2013 N/A 1h 8m
Documentary

Where do images come from? This disturbing and essential question is posed by Philippe Grandrieux, and he already imposed it on himself the start, via Sombre (1999) up to the portrait recently devoted to Masao Adachi (FID 2011). From where, then? Maybe from the depths behind our eyes, ungraspable visions, night in suspension, promise of the end of an eclipse, between dream and nightmare. This is the start (and in truth the programme) of White Epilepsy. In a darkness barely broken by light, a mass advances: a nude back, in a long shot entirely centred on the shoulders.

Plot

In faint light, a body slowly moves, breaking out from total darkness. Then a second body, a woman. Dream or nightmare? Archaic or essential? Desire or struggle? A journey through the night and the light to the confines of sense and vision.They are ghosts - do they really exist? A film like a dream or a nightmare. In the middle of a forest, two naked bodies, those of a man and a woman, perform a very slow and hideous choreography. It looks like an age-old ritual about domination and submission. The male ghost withdraws, but the woman doesnt let him go: she throws herself at him.Philippe Grandrieux, the maker of Sombre (1999) and countless other films, often experimental, shows the ceremonial wrestling in slow motion, with the bodies sometimes seeming no more than a collection of muscles, tendons and pale flesh, as in paintings by Francis Bacon. Apart from being terrifying and violent, the dance occasionally looks sensual.

Written by

N/A

Directed by

Philippe Grandrieux

Production Countries

France

Production Companies

CNC, Région Languedoc-Roussillon, Epileptic, Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP)

Languages

No Language

Awards

2 nominations

Scores
# of Votes
138
Average Rating
6.2 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA