Maybe I'm just a sucker for works of art that "stretch [their] beauty before us with overindulged, seductive, feline opulence," or maybe it's just that the incredibly filmic International Style Tempelhof Airport in Berlin seems to have found an auteur adequate to the task of setting it in celluloid -- regardless, I can't wait to see Eve Sussman's new work, "The Rape of the Sabine Women."
As described in Roberta Smith's review in today's Times,
“The Rape of the Sabine Women” is dense, lavish and drawn out. It is larded with art historical references, startling juxtapositions and brilliant camera work and enriched by the faces, bodies, movements and general sexiness of a tribe of handsome young actors. Intricately edited, it jumps back and forth in time and alternates between color and black-and-white scenes, sharp and grainy definition, slow-motion and normal speed. Cinematic space deepens and then flattens. We see the actors in character, but also in their dressing rooms; we also glimpse cameras, crews and the musicians.Most notably, all dialogue is replaced by an amazing original score by Jonathan Bepler. He worked with a host of musicians and singers, who sometimes improvised during filming. The heady weaving of sound and image is the work’s greatest strength.
It sounds like a performance that is almost operatic in its opulence and self-indulgence. Brava!
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