The Death of Maria Malibran (Schroeter, 1972): ICA Cinema, 4pm
This is a 35mm screening and part of the season at the ICA Cinema devoted to Werner Schroete. You can finds all the details here.
Rowe Reviews review:
An experimental art film that is sure to only appeal to the more
adventurous viewer who is a fan of opaque and mysterious works of art,
Werner Schroeter’s Death of Maria Malibran provides little conclusions
through its running time but never-the-less it's a harrowing portrait
that challenges the fundamental ideals of what cinema can be. The film
is a fever dream of emotion and subtle energy, being dreamlike as it
uses a vibrant orchestral score and operatic performance art to deliver
an expressionistic art piece that confounds as much as it intrigues. The film is simply stunning, with cinematography, art direction, and
lighting which combine to create an intoxicating experience that feels
very much like an operatic stage play while still giving off an almost
supernatural vibe of mystery and intrigue. The film starts off full of
Romanticism but as it progresses it becomes clear The Death of Maria
Malibran is one of ironic romanticism and subversive style, routinely
having sound and image intentionally out of sync which creates a playful
perversion, something that becomes darker and darker as the film
progresses, dehumanizing these romanticized, picturesque woman of
bourgeois society. While trying to easily define Schroeter's film in
any easily discernible way feels like a fools errand, The Death of Maria
Maliban is a film which uses opera as a device to expose the ugliness
and cruelty that exists in bourgeouis society, one that is driven by
status and the collective ideals. Characters routinely speak in a way
that makes little sense and many of the characters become
undifferentiable as the film progresses, as if to suggest that language
itself has little meaning, as one's actions are the deriving force of
morality and personal characters. Schroeter routinely injects the film
with upbeat, vapid pop-style songs throughout, another bizarre but
expressionistic decision which speaks to the vapid nature of society.
While many of these observations could be completely off-base, The
Death of Maria Maliban as a whole feels like an indictment on the
selfish, abusive constructs which society as a whole can create, one
which routinely tears down the individual for the sake of the
collective. Conformity and lack of individuality feel like a major
aspect of this film, with the bourgeois characters essentially
attempting to destroy the young Maria Maliban for having a different
perspective than their overall ideals. Featuring so much to think
about, consider, and attempt to deconstruct, Werner Schroeter's The
Death of Maria Maliban is a film you experience more than attempt to
define, being an expressionistic fever dream that is not quite like
anything I've ever seen.
Here (and above) is an extract.
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