FJ Ossang - La succession Starkov [Dharma Guns] (2011)

Stiliziran i tajanstven punk-triler. Glavni lik je zamorac u  znanstvenom eksperimentu zvanom genetski dvojnik, zbog čega stalno dvoji što se događa oko njega. Obrada mita o Orfeju i Euridici, u tradiciji filmova Nosferatu i Vampyr.

The first images are captivating. A peaceful lake is stirred by the sudden arrival of a motorboat. Aboard is a venomous femme fatale, her eyes hidden by huge sunglasses. A cord from the boat leads to a waterskiing man. He dances on the water to the rhythm of Jello Biafra’s devilish music. The harmony of the moment is shattered by a kiss. Blown by the woman on the boat, it plunges the man under the waves. Barely saved from a watery grave, the young Stan Van Der Decken (Guy McKnight, singer of the defunct punk band the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster) succumbs to the shock of the accident and slips into a deep coma. A victim of post-traumatic damage, he awakens with a section of his memory missing. Disoriented and adrift, he has no choice but to place himself in the hands of Jon, an agent of Starkov, his father’s powerful pharmaceutical firm. Stan slowly discovers that much has changed while he was shut off from the world. Changed for the worse. He is forbidden to contact his sister Delie who, following a series of crises, is wasting away in the family villa. A drug necessary for Stan’s spiritual survival is only available on the black market as it transforms its abusers into zombies. With the spread of this horror becoming an uncontrollable epidemic, Stan is safe only in his hotel room, where he works on the editing of a script commissioned by the mysterious Lofski. One evening, Stan is contacted by the Dharma Guns, a secret society seeking his manuscript, which may contain precious clues about time travel.

Defying any attempts at accurate description, DHARMA GUNS (LA SUCCESSION STARKOV) is an incandescent hallucination that eludes classification, a psychotropic feature film that flips the finger at archaic traditions of narrative cinema. Rejecting the classic linearity of the medium, DHARMA GUNS recalls the strategies of David Lynch in using the vestiges of a strange tale to drag the audience into a cinematic otherwhere, in which image and sound conspire to conjure a psychedelic experience. A Molotov cocktail of thriller and science fiction, this hypnotic work proudly flies the punk rock flag with its ferocious soundtrack, and 1920s Impressionism with its sublime black-and-white palette and effects recalling Jean Epstein. After a long silence, director FJ Ossang is at last behind the camera again, delivering a magisterial confirmation of his status as living legend of experimental film. Defenders of cinema from the edge, heed the call of the Dharma Guns! —Simon Laperrière (translated by Rupert Bottenberg)

"Čovek je bog kada sanja, ali prosjak kada razmišlja." (Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin)

Kriptični i antikonformistički Dharma Guns (La succession Starkov) četvrto je dugometražno ostvarenje F. J. Ossanga, francuskog pesnika, sineaste i pevača alternativnog (punk/industrial) benda M.K.B. Fraction Provisoire. Najverovatnije inspirisano delima Novog talasa, umetnošću ekspresionizma i pisanijem Williama Burroughsa, može se okarakterisati kao metafizička psihodrama ili solipsistički antitriler, koji gledaoca prebacuje u opskurni svet, nastanjen ekscentričnim likovima, a sačinjen od lucidnih halucinacija i vrtoglavih košmara.

Guy McKnight, frontmen britanskih rokera The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, tumači glavnog junaka, dezorijentisanog Stanislawa (Stana) van der Daekena koji, poput Orfeja, pokušava da izbavi svoju verenicu Délie (Ossangova muza Elvire) iz pakla "genetskih dvojnika" i tajnih organizacija, nad kojima se nadvija senka profesora Starkova, Délieinog oca. Nakon buđenja iz kome, saznaje da grupa genealoga traga za individuom čiji identitet odgovara njegovom i, prihvatajući odredbe Starkovljevog zaveštanja, odlazi u zemlju Las Estrellas (u prevodu sa španskog, Zvezde), gde bi trebalo da završi scenario za enigmatičnog gospodina Lofskog, ali mu pažnju odvlače doktor Lisandro Ewers (Diogo Dória) i navodni poznanik Jon (Lionel Tua)...

Izazovna priča krhke fragmentarne strukture deluje kao nejasan odraz u izlomljenom ogledalu, odnosno komplikovana (a za nestrpljive, frustrirajuća) slagalica, čiji su pojedini delovi skriveni u zaključanim odajama tuđe podsvesti. Podeljena na tri celine, u okviru kojih se izdvajaju brojna mini-poglavlja, i izgrađena na temelju (Stanovih) nesigurnih sećanja i uzburkanih emocija, počiva na iščašenoj logici, a predstavlja meditativnu odiseju po dimenziji duhova; svojevrsni esej o Hronosovoj tiraniji i (mučnim ili prosvetljujućim?) poslednjim trenucima života. Ossangova razmišljanja o prolaznosti (i ljubavi) prepliću se sa pretpostavkama o predsmrtnim vizijama, rezultirajući intrigantnom (kvazi)misterijom, u kojoj "svako ima dobar razlog da se pretvara da je neko drugi". U rekonstrukciji (ili daljoj dekonstrukciji?) oštećenog uma i zamagljivanju granice između iluzije i stvarnosti, reditelj pribegava apsurdnim dijalozima i zbunjujućim monolozima, kao što je, recimo, onaj o "samoglasnicima opasnosti":

"Lucifer donosi vatru - A.

Đavo razjedinjuje - I.

Satana razara - U."

Pošto jezik kojim pripoveda nije uvek razumljiv, pregršt pitanja ostaje bez odgovora, a epilog pruža tek parcijalno objašnjenje neobičnih događaja. Dešifrovanje otežava i to što višeznačni filozofski termin "darma" (poredak, zakon, ispravnost, vrlina, istinitost, suština) Ossang koristi u negativnom kontekstu, budući da se naslov odnosi na jedan od uzroka Stanovih neprilika. Anarhična igra nagađanja, u koju nas hipnotički uvlači, vremenom postaje pomalo zamorna, što navodi na zaključak da bi Dharma Guns bolje funkcionisao u kraćem formatu.
Snaga ovog "primitivnog filma", kako ga autor sam etiketira, leži u gustoj atmosferi, na tragu Robbe-Grilletovih, Maddinovih i Lynchovih, pa čak i Cronenbergovih eksperimenata. Teško je odvojiti pogled od prelepih crno-belih fotografija Gleba Teleshova ili odoleti moćnim muzičkim numerama koje kidaju dominantnu tišinu. Sporadična upotreba boja unosi varljivo svetlo u dugačak tunel kojim se sumnjama opterećen protagonist kreće, omogućavajući nam da ga lakše pratimo. Najvrednije spomena jesu briljantna uvodna scena skijanja na vodi, u pratnji osorne rokačine War Pimp Renaissainse (Lard) i ona snoviđajna u kojoj Stan sreće Délie u prostoriji ispunjenoj apstraktnim platnima, dok u pozadini bruji psihodelična balada Taboo (The Cramps)... - ngbooart.blogspot.com/

 

Silencio:

Trees, the sea, megaliths, an iron bridge, a woman passerby filmed in the early morning and late hours of the day.
Silencio examines the elementary figures of the cinema and the world. A return to primitive cinema and the basic elements ' water, wind, earth, sun...'
With an industrial music score by Throbbing Gristle.
Since the early 80s, Ossang has developed a unique film style, working mostly in black and white under the influence of early filmmakers like Murnau and Eisenstein. The emphasis is on creating poetic visual imagery and tying this to the kind of industrial soundscapes familiar from post-punk music and the films of David Lynch. He began publishing poetry at 17, and since the 80s has been singer with 'noise'n'roll band' - Mesaggero Killers Boys. His feature films are L'affaire des divisions Morituri (1984), Le Trésor des îles chiennes (1991) and Docteur Chance (1997), each a sublime slice of apocalyptic science fiction owing as much to the writings of Burroughs and Ballard as to films like Godard's Alphaville.
In 2007 Ossang's short Silencio, a stunning 20-minute-long silent black and white film with a soundtrack by British band Throbbing Gristle, won the Prix Jean Vigo. Thus Ossang entered the prestigious circle of the Vigo award winners including Alain Resnais, Philippe Garrel, Jean-Luc Godard and other luminaries of the French cinema.

Vladivostok: