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order the box 1/3 more about the box read the box's texts |
"My film-making is much better suited to being watched by a single viewer.
I take the viewers one by one, unlike Hollywood cinema which aims to
amalgamate the audience."
Stephen Dwoskin
| Dvd 1 : | Take me |
| Dirty | |
| Girl | |
| Dad | |
| Grandpère’pear | |
| Dear Frances (in memoriam) | |
| Dvd 2 : | Pain is... |
| Intoxicated by my illness | |
| Dvd 3 : | Tod und Teufel |
| Face Anthea | |
| Dvd 4 : | Behindert |
| Outside in | |
| Dvd 5 : | Trying to kiss the moon |
| Lost dreams |
Dvd 1
Take me
Une femme chantonne en déambulant tranquillement en robe
de chambre. Cette scène tranquille, se transforme peu à peu en
une magnifique peinture mobile. Dwoskin, peintre et cinéaste,
prend son modèle comme support, tout en semblant masquer
son corps avec des couches de peinture, il réussit à capter,
grâce à la caméra, l'être intérieur.
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Dirty
DIRTY is the reincarnation of two girls, a bottle and one bed.
Their bodies, hands and face expressions reach out in a refilm
look.
"DIRTY was originally shot in 1965. The footage was found in
a very bad state and 'restored' with all marks, breaks, dirt, etc.
deliberately left in place. But this is not the only thing that
makes this a 'dirty' film; we see two almost naked women in
a bed, first drinking from a bottle, then playing with it and
ultimately engaging in erotic play. The dirt marks, the grainy
texture of the image and the breakdown of the continuity of
the action give the whole film the quality of a highly charged
erotic memory. It creates the effect of a dreamlike recalling
of a scene with the dreamer's freedom to re-run or pause
on particular gestures and freeze certain privileged moments
such as the caress of a hand, the bounce of a breast, a look,
etc. The film becomes an erotic daydream, a play with
sensual images retained from a scene witnessed sometime
in the past." (Artificial Eye)
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Girl
It is quite revealing how complex the simple form is. Shot one to
one, a girl is confronted with nothing more than her thoughts. In
the period of watching her (while she is looking at you) her
expressions and movements turn into a 'mirror' for the viewer to
experience his or herself. The experience is solely emotive
between you and her, and occurs in "real" time. (Stephen Dwoskin)
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Dad
An ode to my father, and perhaps to all fathers. Called a "moving
painting" by my sister, the film blends found family footage of the
young and the ageing father. It takes the tiny gestures of daily life
and turns them into the monumental moments of tenderness and
respect. (Stephen Dwoskin)
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Grandpère’pear
"Mon grand-père était un artiste plein de charme et il aurait joué la
comédie s'il avait eu un public. Dans ce film, extrait d'images
familiales, c'est une simple poire qui fait l'objet de son panache."
(Stephen Dwoskin)
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Dear Frances (in memoriam)
Suddenly and sadly my dear friend Frances died. At that moment of
loss I needed to hold on to her. The film is just that.
(Stephen Dwoskin)
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Dvd 2
Pain is…
The film is just this kind wandering through the personal ways and
whys of different kinds of pain in different kinds of people.Far from
the academic and the medical, the film questions this phenomenon
of pain. The film searches through the many levels of pain and finds
it in its unique position between disaster and pleasure. Pain is..thus
plunges us instantly into the midst of controversy and the unknown.
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Intoxicated by my illness
Intoxicated by My Illness (in which images photographed by several
people are extensively superimposed) loosely and dreamily tracks a
phase in Dwoskin's recent life that took him from medical
examination to intensive care. Mostly it is a reverie about erotic
fantasy - especially the excruciating, poignant ambiguity of bodily
sensation strung out between intense pain and exquisite pleasure,
between the figures of the nurse, who might be imagined as a
bondage mistress, and the bondage mistress, who touches the
'dominated' body in the most tender way imaginable. Dwoskin
periodically overlays known 'movie music' in order to ironically
foreground his own 'self dramatisation', all the while drawing us
into a rare and precious intimacy in extremis.
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Dvd 3
Tod und Teufel
The action of the film evolves around the rooms of a house
as one of the main characters, Lisiska, is waiting and is studied in
depth as she prepares herself for a meeting & The film attempts to
display sexual barriers and misconceptions, and about the
role-playing and the confusion around the whole question of sexual
and sensual involvement. The essence is the confrontation with
self-deception, lies and the real fear of contact with both sexes.'
Based on the German playwright Frank Wedekind's play Tod Und Teufel
(Stephen Dwoskin)(back to the menu)
Face Anthea
Either in its natural state or with its embellishments of makeup,
jewels, and hairdos, nothing can restrain the imagination from the
most forms of speculation. All the senses are concentrated in this
one head: eyes, ears, nose, lips, tongue and the skin which covers
all with its network of vibrating nerves. One imagines the senses,
the counterpart of our own, ready to respond with all the various
moods, suggestions and agreements. Through the eyes alone, when
placed in contact with our own, a visual dialogue and interplay is
embarked upon. And when the lips, two bodies fitting together in
perfect harmony, break into a smile, they invite further exploration.
Then, with the engagement of time, this dialogue shifts from
speculation to realization. The face transforms from its abstract
suggestiveness to the singular projection of seduction. It is no
longer anyones face; it is the face of one particular person.
(Stephen Dwoskin)
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Dvd 4
Behindert
The main intention of BEHINDERT is to express some of the
subjective perspectives within the social/personal confinements of
a personal relationship, as seen from the point of view of the
physically disabled person. This position was taken for two principal
reasons: to eliminate or reduce the "objectivity and sympathy"
views normally given to the subject; and to try to deal with the
personal and emotional entanglements that the (or a) disabled
person encounters in the so-called "normal social/personal" areas
of life. The mere mention of a film concerned with the subject of
physical disability conjures up preconceived notions and images as
to the type of film it is. It is put aside as a medical/social document
of little importance, particularly by film people who think of films
as "political," "narrative," "entertainment," "poetic," or "structural."
This film is about the physically normal and disabled in
confrontation, but not literal relations. It is a documentary without
being one. The content lies beneath the film. The material is treated
subjectively, and crosses fiction with realistic documents, without
a clear distinction.
A physically disabled man (Stephen Dwoskin) and able-bodied
woman (Carola Regnier) confront the difficulties of a lasting
relationship together. Their story is told through image and sound
with a minimum of dialogue. Dwoskin shoots close up and lets the
camera explore a persons face for several minutes. While this may
sound static, the film is in fact an unsentimental, totally believable
drama of personalities, an intense, intimate portrait of emotions as
they grow, transform, peak, and die.
"The film is a documentary without being one. The content lies
beneath the film, going into many areas. The material is treated
subjectively, and crosses fiction with realistic documents, without
a clear distinction." (Stephen Dwoskin)
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Outside in
"Dowskin filme son environnement quotidien et propose un journal
filmé, une chronique qu'il aurait en permanence à portée de la main.
La plupart du temps, il passe devant la caméra (in) et tout en se
faisant filmer par un tiers (outside), dirige la scène. Il ne montre
pas son corps handicapé puisqu'il joue avec en permanence. Un
corps souvent muet qui, par son inertie, sa lenteur et sa difficulté
à se déplacer dans un plan, son instabilité et ses maladresses, est
en fait un vrai corps burlesque. Outside in, à partir de saynètes
très courtes, est la fiction d'un corps en déséquilibre qui menace
ou bouscule joyeusement l'ordonnance d'une scène."
(Charles Tesson, Cahier du cinéma n°333)
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Dvd 5
Trying to kiss the moon
This autobiography of a film maker is unique of its kind. Without
chronology, the film is made up of fragments of home movies shot
by his father and mother during his childhood in New York, film
extracts that Dwoskin himself shot in London, of a sequence taken
from an interview, of a video letter sent by Robert Kramer during
the war in Iraq and of raw footage shot from his wheelchair. We
thus feel awkward watching these home movies, especially the
first part in which we see the child running around, jumping,
sometimes falling flat on his face. A somewhat morbid suspense
settles: we expect the trembling 8mm pictures to show the
misfortune that strikes Dwoskin. Nevertheless the film does not
dwell on self-pity: rapidly, the heros vitality following his accident,
his sneering smile imposes itself.
And it seems to show that shackled by destiny, Dwoskin yet shows
even more ambition, rage, desire (for cinema, painting and women)
and sense of utopia. To the point where he tries to kiss the moon.
(Edouard Waintrop, Libération)
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Lost dreams
Lost dreams is made out of those little remnants of images,
from a single glance to a detailed moment, of those women from
youth's love and young dreams. They are woven together, like
fragments of the mind, and from the ends of film to the corners of
the frame, into a memory of them. They are once again embraced
and, if only briefly, poetically honoured.
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