II. Dressing and
Undressing
Taking Kenneth Anger’s iconic Puce Moment (1949) as a departure point, this programme concentrates on the idea of a woman dressing and undressing in her own private space. Turning such a daily activity into a film changes the most ordinary activity into something less ordinary. Sequences of dressing and undressing span the history of film, allowing much-desired glimpses of intimate moments carrying an erotic charge. Anger’s, Visconti’s and Fleury’s films also disconnect the ritual of dressing from its daily purpose but what distinguishes them is that they are unconcerned with the erotic. Rather, they pull focus on a sense of disengagement and introspection.
Guest-curated by Alistair O’Neill.
→ Read his essay ‘Dressing and Undressing’ here.
Twinkle
Friday 26 May, 20:30 | ICA Cinema | Duration: 29'Twinkle (1992) is a very simple film shot in one continuous take from a single fixed viewpoint. It features a woman trying on a series of different shoes and outfits in her bedroom while she listens to a record of high-pitched American hits from the 1950s. Twinkle instantly conjures the sense of excitation that getting ready for a night out arouses, but this soon passes when we begin to realise that the woman isn't going anywhere. As the film continues, we see her ever more caught up in an inevitable cycle of indecision bound by the number of shoes she owns.
Boccaccio ‘70: The Job (Il Lavoro)
Friday 26 May, 20:30 | ICA Cinema | Duration: 53'Il Lavoro (also known as The Job) is one of Luchino Visconti's least discussed films, released as an episode in Boccaccio '70 (1962), a film intended to challange the prevailing climate of film censorship of the time and including episodes by the other notable Italian directors. Visconti's film is set in a grand palazzo apartment and delas with a rich young burgeois woman who resolves her aristocratic husband's admission that he has visited prostitutes by stipulating that he now must also pay her for sex.
Puce Moment
Friday 26 May, 20:30 | ICA Cinema | Duration: 6'Puce Moment is a fragment filmed in 1949 and later edited by Anger himself into a stand-alone piece. Referring to the purple-green iridescent colour of 1920s flapper gowns, Anger’s mood sketch evokes the archetypal moment of a film star’s dressing up. It is a dizzying parade of vintage gowns: their beading, sequins and embroidery shimmer aggressively in front of the camera, taking up entire film frames. These near-abstract images are juxtaposed with close-ups of Yvonne Marquis referencing classic Hollywood glamour.
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