Gene Siskel Film Center - Saturday, 5:30pm and Thursday, 8pm
The voyeuristic tendencies of humanity are spilling themselves all over
the web as you read this. Cell phone footage of violence and misery are
as instantly disseminated and have replaced the daily newspaper of the
20th Century. No longer do we wait for tomorrow, and no longer do we
take time to process the events we hear about through the media. Or in
our own lives. The immediacy of the mass recounting of history has lead
to a numbing of our emotions and a disconnection from others. Or so the
argument goes. In one of the smartest films about the continuing
intrusion of technology in our lives, the ability to document experience
is posited as the only means for reconnecting with emotion. After the
death of her father renders speech therapist Gaille void of feeling, she
stumbles upon a drunken auteur disguised as a low-grade video editor.
Living amongst filth and bottles of vodka, he turns weddings into
farces, where brides are ugly and guests gorge on reception food like
pigs. He edits some footage of Gaille working for her to present at a
conference, and she realizes that only through seeing herself on tape
does she reconnect with her feelings. She begins to have herself taped
as she engages in a variety of stunts. The pranks begin harmlessly
enough, with the taping of Gaille crashing a wedding and kissing the
unexpecting groom, but she needs to keep upping the ante. Of course this
self-reflexive voyeurism has a price to pay, and Gaille systematically
severs her connections to everyone around her. Although comparisons to
VIDEODROME are not unfounded, where Cronenberg tried to shock us into
agreeing with his thesis, Buozyte uses her video sequences to humanize
her characters. This film shows a deft eye for visual style and a light
touch in pacing, somewhat remarkable for an MFA thesis film. Expect more
from Buozyte in the future. (2008, 84 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
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