After having seen 5 films
by Greek-Australian filmmaker Bill Mousoulis, I think the transitions
between documentary and fiction in his films are always very thin.
His new film Songs of Revolution is a journey through
different kinds of Greek music, the connection between these
different kinds and the history of Greece from the beginning of the
20th Century until to date. The film begins with an
audiovisual collage. Different TV channels propagating the false
dreams of commercials and the nightmares of recent Greek reality. The
first song (Enough), a Punk song appears and we see images of
manifestations. The non-filtered anger of this punk song connects
with the image of the naked anger of the people. The first disturbing
moments hint to a reality of people who are struggling for surviving
between anger and sadness. The pseudo reality suggested by
Neoliberalism and its instrument Television between political
filtered information and commercials is busted.
The film introduces
different kinds of music from the Remebetica (which is called the
Greek Blues), the protest songs of the 1960s and 1970s, Punk and
other alternative forms like Rap and and experimental music of recent
times. This happens in interviews with musicians, recorded concert
excerpts but also with arranged musical-like scenes. The interviews
with musicians give an introduction how Greek history of the last 100
years is connected with the music as the expression of a long history
of suffering from the occupation by the Great Turks, the German
occupation during world war II., civil war, dictatorship and finally
the most recent crisis. One can use it as a kind of orientation in
this film, but how the film proceeds it will offer very different
accesses.
Bill Mousoulis never
really makes films just “about” something, he looks at something
but often also reacts on what he sees and interacts with the people
he meets. And this transition from documentary to fiction, this
balancing act between fiction and reality happens sometimes sudden.
There is a young musician whom we see at first working in his band.
Later he offers a musical-like performance as a waiter in a
restaurant.
Another musician quarrels
with his parents. The dialogue of the persons are stylized like a rap
song. This might be a hint to the difficulty of nonconformist
musician to survive but it is also a good example for the playfulness
of Bill Mousoulis who moves freely between documentary and fiction.
Later we will see actors staging songs which are sung by others.
The image making devices
called cinema as used by Bill Mousoulis seem always to overcome over
it´s cold technical precision. Even this balancing act between
reality and fiction seems rather organic than arty. Mousoulis always
tries to get his “instrument” his image making devices always in
accordance to these different kinds of music. Songs of Revolution
is not only a great music film, it becomes often like music itself.
Among several musical-like
scenes there are 5 songs which appear in the playback method. They
are sung by another singer but staged by actress Marianthi Koliaki.
During some songs she moves her lips, pretending to sing. During
other songs she paraphrase with her whole body the stories told in
this songs. Even with this cinematographic trick, Mousoulis creates
an own veracity. Koliaki´s heartbreaking performance reminds me in
Madhabi Mukherjee´s likewise staged songs in Ritwik Ghatak´s
masterpiece Subarnarekha. The tristesse of the urban landscape
where Koliaki is walking through, the synchronism between the sadness
and the longings in the songs and her body language is breathtaking.
It is one of these moments where the film becomes a song itself.
Another moment and a
completely different stylistic approach: A musician meets a very old
musician. He tells him how much he admires him and that he wrote a
song dedicated to his elder idol. Than he performs the song. Even
though in contrast to the staged song performances, this seemingly
just documented scene has it´s own beauty and yes – it´s own
poetry. It is also an example how versatile the film tries to
approach all these different kind of music. The rage of scene with
the first punk song in this film is edited in furious hard cuts.
Other moments, especially the interviews are observant and
comparatively sober. The musical scenes, the fictional element
complement the other aspects and I would like to call them as moments
of “magic realism”.
One of the most
fascinating aspects in the films by Bill Mousoulis I have seen so far
is this dynamic relationship between moments when his films are
“made” and these moments when things are just happen in front of
the camera. I mean an equal intensity of moments when Mousoulis uses
the options his apparatus offers but also moments where he seems just
recording what is in front of his camera. There is a scene when
several musicians including a female singer are meeting in the
evening at a street cafe. One of them introduces the other musicians
to each other. Everyone brought his own instrument and soon they play
music together. Even though it seems to be one of these moments which
“just happened” and even though it is one of these observational
moments, for me it appears like a moment of pure cinema, different than the tour de force of this lost soul personified by Marianthi Koliaki
but with the same intensity.
Like so much good films,
Songs of Revolution is also like a journey-experience which
evokes in me so much different and sometimes contradictory moods,
thoughts and emotions. The sadness, the anger, the bitterness of
people who live under difficult circumstances but also their vitality
appeared for less than 2 hours film in all its intensity. Songs of
Revolution is one reason more to be grateful for this quite
fortunate coincidence for me to get in touch with the films by Bill
Mousoulis.
Rüdiger Tomczak
As the film is new,
informations can be found at the Songs of Revolution-web site and at
the homepage of Bill Mousoulis.
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