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Decasia: The State of Decay (2002)
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Reviews Counted:15
Fresh:13
Rotten:2
Average Rating:6.5/10
Theatrical Release:Mar 19, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: On November 4th and 5th of this year the Europaischer Musikmonat in Basel, Switzerland will present the basel sinfonietta in the premiere of a symphony by Michael Gordon made theatrical by Ridge... On November 4th and 5th of this year the Europaischer Musikmonat in Basel, Switzerland will present the basel sinfonietta in the premiere of a symphony by Michael Gordon made theatrical by Ridge Theater. The fifty-five member orchestra will be presented in an environmental setting on a scaffolding structure in the shape of a triangle surrounding the audience. Stretched and hung over the face of the structure will be a variety of fabrics to be used as projection surfaces through which the musicians and instruments will be visible. Onto these surfaces will be projected a film created by Bill Morrison who is drawing on black and white archival footage in various states of deterioration. Layered onto the film imagery will be slide projections created by Laurie Olinder. The event took place at the Paul Sacher-Halle, Saal 2 in Basel, Switzerland. [More]
Director: Bill Morrison
Director: Bill Morrison
Composer: Michael Gordon
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Reviews for Decasia: The State of Decay
As a musical piece, it is...able to convey mixed emotions within a very dissonant setting. But the film that goes along with it has a harder time selling its sense of self.
By presenting images that are in advanced stages of decomposition Morrison is agitating in the most powerful way on behalf of the archives fighting to rescue their holdings from disintegration.
Like Brakhage, Morrison contemplates the nature of film itself and, like Conner, he conjures an apocalyptic vision. In Decasia's case, this comes from the deformation, which turns ordinary scenes into horror-movie spectacle. Of course, despite the formal
A mesmerising meditation on life, death and cinema that recalls the heyday of the 60s avant-garde.
The visuals are hypnotic to watch ... and despite the seeming lack of narrative, they even generate suspense via the associative editing technique Morrison employs.
Decasia is what has happened already to so many silent movies, newsreels and the like. The unexpected thing is that its dying, in this shower of black-and-white psychedelia, is quite beautiful.
The film is a fierce dance of destruction. Its flame-like, roiling black-and-white inspires trembling and gratitude.
I'm sure the filmmaker would disagree, but, honestly, I don't see the point. It's a visual Rorschach test and I must have failed.
Others, more attuned to the anarchist maxim that 'the urge to destroy is also a creative urge', or more willing to see with their own eyes, will find Morrison's iconoclastic uses of technology to be liberating.
If you're the kind of parent who enjoys intentionally introducing your kids to films which will cause loads of irreparable damage that years and years of costly analysis could never fix, I have just one word for you -– Decasia
Bill Morrison's Decasia is uncompromising, difficult and unbearably beautiful.
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