I appreciate your response, Doug. Though widely-known as a "contentual"
provocateur, Lars von Trier can also be described as "formally
innovative". While searching for more background on the composition
of "Visions of Europe", I learned for the first time about his film
project "Dimension", begun in 1991, which is to consist of three minute
shots taken by von Trier around Christmas of a favorite actor (Udo Kier) in
different European locations, one per year over a period of 33 years. He's
certainly provoked me in different ways to write about his work, and those
texts can be accessed by visiting Anny Ballardini's "Poets' Corner". Barry
On Thu, 1 Dec 2005 08:52:43 -0700, Douglas Barbour
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Sounds like a fascinating film, Barry. Also, your takes, those other
>voices....
>
>Doug
>On 30-Nov-05, at 10:08 PM, Barry Alpert wrote:
>
>> VISIONS OF EUROPE
>>
>> [via Lars von Trier]
>> [“A tag in each ear secures a life-long identity.”]
>>
>> I no longer dream of Europe.
>> Suddenly it was gone. So what?
>> I no longer kn[o][e]w it.
>> Off the misery, on the go, on the lookout . . .
>> Nobody would say such nonsense. Now tell me the truth.
>> Stuffed the squashed grapes into a vat.
>>
>>
>>
>> Barry Alpert / Silver Spring, MD US / 11-30-05 (11:58 PM)
>>
>>
>> The Danish film director Lars von Trier commissioned one director from
>> each
>> of the 25 countries constituting the European Union to articulate “a
>> personal vision of current or future life in the EU” within a film of
>> no
>> longer than five minutes. Then he gathered together and ordered what
>> had
>> been contributed into an omnibus production of his Zentropa
>> Entertainment.
>> Though I remember viewing films made up of sections from perhaps as
>> many as
>> 6 directors, I was startled when I first learned of the extent of the
>> multi-
>> voicing in “Visions of Europe” and eagerly looked forward to the
>> screening. Whether Lars von Trier’s compositional strategy would
>> succeed
>> in organizing disparate segments loomed larger for me than whether I
>> could
>> carve a piece of writing out of it. In fact, the film did work for me.
>> Also, I was able to quarry 9 lines from the first few sections before
>> being
>> overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of voices represented. Those 9 lines
>> were edited into 6, while 2 voices (neither of them mine) emerge from 4
>> sources.
>>
>>
>Douglas Barbour
>11655 - 72 Avenue NW
>Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
>(780) 436 3320
>
>Shakespeare
>Drag yr mouldy old bones
>Up these stairs & tell me
>What you died of,
>I think
>I’ve got it
>Too.
>
> Sharon Thesen
>========================================================================
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