GUARD #47
via Filip Renc
Get a stretcher,
understand? Nothing!
A letter--
read it:
disability after they examine you.
Barry Alpert / Silver Spring MD US / 1-20-10 (6:01 PM)
I went to see this recent Czech film largely because I was intrigued by the performative
possibilities of a character who loses his hearing and later regains it (but doesn't tell
those who assume he's still deaf). At the last moment I decide to bring into the theatre
some paper, just in case. "Number" and "forty seven" prove to be minor aspects of the
film, but "guard" resonates in at least three ways. And then the unexpected
dramatization of the administration of the disability issue circa 1920 struck me. I wrote
down enough lines for an acrostic rather quickly and let myself enjoy a complex and
beautiful film from the appropriate visual position of front-row center. You can get a
sense of it via this trailer (alas no subtitles):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEe5wPAxbd8
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