The film is a try of a remake of
Rossellini´s masterpiece Viaggio In Italia, it is a homage to this
film, a personal interpretation or how Dieutre calls it in his over
voice commentary, an exercise of appreciation.
The couple Ingrid Bergman and George
Sanders are here replaced by the homosexual couple Tom and Alex.
The film is always interwoven with
personal reflections and thoughts by the filmmaker. Often we see him
talking with a lawyer specialized in copyrights and all the legal
affairs related to make a remake.
Rossellini´s masterpiece is always
present, obviously in excerpts and often projected on huge screens as
the background. In these moments it does not look anymore like a
projected film, but like a memory of a film or even like a memory of
an event which had a big impact on one´s life. The film is present
in the dialogue of this gay couple which is only slightly modified.
Even in the images of the Naples in the 21.century, you still feel
the shadow of Rossellini´s film.
Between all the options how to define
this film, I would choose rather the term “audiovisual essay” In
one scene the lawyer explains to the filmmaker that adapting,
remaking or even quoting an existing work becomes a problem “if you
discourage the people to watch the original work”. As a matter of
fact Viaggio nelle dopo-storia makes one watching the Rossellini film
again and it does not matter if one already knows this film or not.
The film is a sounding of this huge
resonance space between a film we love and admire, its impact on our
subjective experience and our view to the world.
The actual “remake” does not really
take place, it remains fragmented if caused by legal copyright-issue,
technical or financial problems or finally caused by the filmmaker´
hesitation.
What makes this film to such an
inspiring experience is the dynamic relationship between the film by
Rossellini (and Dieutre´ for it) and the echo it leaves in the
contemporary Naples and literally in the whole film by Dieutre.
After all Viaggio nella dopo-storia is
probably an appreciation of a famous film, an appreciation of cinema,
only a French cinephile can approach.
It is a film with many layers each of
them are corresponding with each other and these layers are in the
images and in the soundtrack.
Adapted and modified dialogues between
Alex and Tom have sometimes a character of an evocation of the time,
space and also the concrete part of history connected with Viaggio In
Italia. And again the projected excerpts on a huge screen. Sometimes
Tom and Alex are acting in front of it. The screen is indefinable
big. We see only fragments from Rossellini´s images. In its many
layers Dieutre´s film reminds me sometimes in Stanley Kwan´s
masterpiece Ruan Ling Yu on the Chinese actress Ruan Ling yu and
sometimes in Anup Singh´s mesmerizing cinematic dance through the
world of Bengali master Ritwik Ghatak, The Name Of A River. If Anup Singh´s appreciation
(which is not fixed on a certain film by Ghatak) is closer to
Terrence Malick and Stanley Kwan´s bio pic closer to Orson Welles,
they have nevertheless something in common with Viaggio nella
dopo-jistoria. These films are more like a homage, these are films by
people who really lived in and with their admired subjects. These
films are great inspirations for all those who love films, who write
about films - but also for those who make films.
I always loved Viaggio in Italia.
Vincent Dieutre make me love it now even more. And after all, this
film is a wonderful example how to talk, think, feel and how to
express our love for cinema.
If film criticism and film making ever
comes together, than Viaggio nella dopo-storia is a kind of la ove
match between both of them.
Rüdiger Tomczak
Screening:
Sunday, Febr 15, Arsenal 1 17.30
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