These next two reviews of the documentaries Atlantis and Brasimone are written by student Fanny Leyvraz. Fanny lives in Gland and is studying for a Masters degree in the history of cinema at the University of Lausanne. Fanny is a regular visitor to Vision du Réel. She also works as an extra helping hand at the Cinemathèque suisse in Penthaz.
Atlantis – directed by Ben Russell – “A brilliant but disturbing and original portrait of the Atlantis myth”.
In the debate after this film Ben Russell revealed that he chose this title carefully. A title charged with symbolism and meaning to illustrate his short-movie. The film itself was shot with 16mm film on the island of Malta. Referring to the mystical island, framed by Plato, and revived by science fiction TV-series, and pulp novel ” The Man from Atlantis “, this movie as quest for metaphysical answers is yet another incarnation of Atlantis.
Mirror maze
Drawing the dynamic portrait of Utopia, a place where people are happy; like the old men in a bar slowly and loudly sing ” We Utopians are happy / This will last forever” in order to bring us into the mystic world of Atlantis, Ben Russell uses various techniques (as much with the sound as with the pictures) to create a supernatural feeling and to create a reaction in the audience.
During the whole 23 minutes of the movie, there is a continuous field recording, taken outside a church. One hears people talking, different footsteps, various cars driving by. Played with this ultra-realistic sound are musical pieces of extreme genres. They can be either religious chants of monks, tribal drums or electronic club-music. Each piece of music reacts and creates effect with the background sound, the spectator cannot forget (as the usual Hollywood films try to make us do) that he is seeing a constructed idea of a story, something fully edited, thought through, and created with intention.
This surprising use of sound is deeply intermingled with the very eclectic images giving rhythm to the movie. From documentary-like scenes of Malta, to Hollywood-style staged stills of people holding mirrors by the sea, to poetical double exposure shots of the sea’s horizon and people.
Ben Russell uses those mirror-scene as vectors to bring us further and further into his magical world, each reflection of the sea, the sky, taking us with the movement, taking further under the surface and nearer the magical place of Atlantis/Utopia, were all people are happy.
Between realistic images and soundtracks, mythical references, magical ambiances and mysticism, the director plays with all the possibilities that cinema can offer, and makes us feel that we are somewhere else, maybe in Atlantis…. who knows?
Brasimone – directed by Ricardo Palladino
Ricardo Palladino’s film draws the portrait of Brasimone, an artificial lake near Bologna, in the Appeninni mountains, a protected area with the Regional Park of Suviana since 1995.
Past and present
With the same attention brought to editing as the previous movie, this one has a very different style and is much more ” classical” in its approach . For the images shown on the screen, Ricardo Palladino tried creating reactions with various sources of archive footage (amateur movies and also industrial films) and multiple formats of present footage (like Super8 films).
The different scenes follow each other smoothly, creating a sense of wholeness. He uses archives from the sixties, when the lake was famous and filled by summer tourists and holiday makers from Tuscany and Emilia Romagna.
During that time the construction of a nuclear plant was planned but then was stopped by a 1987 referendum preventing nuclear activities. Ricardo Palladino also uses field recordings, sounds of children’s laughter, people talking and cars driving by, and give life to the images of the past. Today, the lake having been established as a protected area, keeps the imprints of its industrial, and tourist life. Between beautiful untouched nature, and man-made activities, Brasimone continues to exist in the past and in the present.