[Spacemovie] Coming Apart Mo 10.4. 19:30

[spacemovie at mur.at]

Der Ersatztermin für "CQ", der das letzte Mal leider gespielt werden konnte,
wurde mit 8.Mai festgelegt.

Am Kunsthaus Plakat und am Flyer ist als nächster Film "Donnie Darko"
festgehalten.
Der Termin von "Donnie Darko" ist aber immer noch nicht fixiert, so
wie die endgültigen Rechte für diesen Film eine lebhafte Fluktuation
erleidet. Vielleicht gelingt es uns bis dahin, aber vorerst fixiert
für den 24.April ist bislang "Greendale" von Neil Young.
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Coming Apart (US 1969)    http://spacemovie.mur.at/0604a.html

"One of the most challenging, visionary, important films of
independent cinema" - INDIEWIRE

"Coming Apart ist ein wieder entdecktes Dokument aus dem Jahr 1969,
das die Versuche eines New Yorker Psychotherapeuten beschreibt, sich
der eigenen Existenz mittels einer versteckten Kamera zu vergewissern.
Als sich die Popkultur bereits ihres utopischen Potenzials beraubt
sieht, erzählt der Film gleichsam von der Orientierungslosigkeit einer
ganzen Gesellschaft: Psychoanalyse dient als Religionsersatz, doch
niemand therapiert den Therapeuten. 1969 zerstörten die Reaktionen der
Presse Ginsbergs Karriere, heute besticht Coming Apart als visionär
kraftvolles Zeugnis." - Andreas Busche, Viennale 2005

Im selben Jahr entstanden wie Easy Rider, Medium Cool und Midnight
Cowboy, aber eher durch Andy Warhol, Cassavetes, D.A. Pennebaker oder
Antonioni beeinflußt, erntete der Independent Kultfilm "Coming Apart"
in seiner kurzen Laufzeit in New York damals nur höchste Kritikerehren
oder Totalverrisse. Ich möchte es eher mit Lars von Triers Idioten
oder dem ultimativem Gonzo-Film eines Seymore Butt vergleichen, ein
zeitloses Meisterwerk, nicht für den typischen Popcorn Kinobesucher
geeignet. Coming Apart hat einen hohen formalen Anspruch, ist
durchgeplant bis ins letzte Detail, will aber ein künstlerischer
Amateurfilm bleiben. Der Arzt filmt seine Patienten, um sich selbst
verstehen zu lernen. Das provokante Thema: Das Ausnutzen des intimen
Psychiater- Patienten Verhältnis und die prototypische moderne 70er
Dramatik einer offenen Beziehung, mit einer damals schon
übertreibenden jungen Sally Kirkland (ihre erste Rolle), die wie im
Titel angedeutet vom Helden schlußendlich verlassen wird.

Rip torn gives one of the great screen performances as a psychiatrist
secretly filming his own mental breakdown in Milton Moses Ginsberg's
classic exploration of dark eroticism and self-referential cinematic
form. Anticipating the cam-corder driven, diary films of today, the
entire film is shot into a mirror from a single camera angle in a
one-room apartment. Psychoanalyst Joe Glazer, aka Glassman, rents a
studio apartment in a towering, glass-walled skyscraper, away from his
office and his pregnant wife, where he has a variety of sexual
encounters with a series of women - all of which he films with a
hidden camera. But always looking over his shoulder, Joe becomes a
voyeur of his own life, the camera his only mode of communication.
Until finally encased in his own reflection, Joe ends up filming his
own disintegration.

Although entirely scripted, this fierce, frank and explicit film seems
improvised. The acting is so explosive it seems uncontrolled and the
sex scenes have been described as real and pornographic. In a dramatic
opposition to Hollywood's narrative filmmaking aesthetic, Ginsberg
calls attention to the presence of the camera, abandoning cinema's
"omniscient eye" for a deliberately conscious "camera eye". Truly
ahead of its time, Coming Aparat remains a visionary and
transformative piece of American cinema.

"One of the few illuminating - not to say harrowing - portrays of a
schizophrenic crack-up that I have ever seen on the screen. Art and
very troubling art at that." - Richard Shickel, LIFE (1969)

"A buried treasure ... COMING APART is the bold, intellectual drama
EYES WIDE SHUT wanted to be... There's an unflinching rawness to all
of the action - the dialogue as well as the male and female nudity -
that's as remarkable today as it must have been in 1969. The corrosive
effects of the psychiatrist's promiscuity come across powerfully,
thanks to Torn's raw performance and Ginsberg's style, which blends
the storytelling of European art films with the physicality of
American movies... This tale of emotional deterioration is one of the
year's most remarkable stories." - Paul Sherman, BOSTON HERALD (1999)

"Because the dramatic elements are so intense and effective, this is
not merely an exercise or an experiment, because it transcends its
form. The symbolism is a bit heavy-handed at times, but it isn't
unsuccessful. Joe is the ultimate self-reflective individual, looking
inward, looking at himself, filming himself, somehow vacant and
lacking a distinguishable personality, with a large mirror behind the
couch on which he sits (a courtesy to the viewer, as well) -- how
could his surname be anything other than "Glassman"? That he is a
psychiatrist adds another layer of provocation. A vicious cycle is
depicted. Joe's instability makes it impossible for him to responsibly
treat his patients, and the instability of his patients makes sexual
intimacy with them dangerous to his own already fragile psychological
state." - BornJaded, imdb user comment

US 1969, R+B: Milton Moses Ginsberg, D: Rip Torn, Sally Kirkland,
Viveca Lindfors. 110min, SW, eng.OF
19:30 Uhr, Space04 Kunsthaus Graz, € 5.-

Links:
    * [imdb] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064180/
    * [viennale] http://www.viennale.at/de/programm_final/filme/1854.shtml
    * [rotten tomatoes] http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/coming_apart/
    * [taz]  http://www.filmzentrale.com/rezis/comingapartab.htm
--
Reini Urban
http://spacemovie.mur.at/   http://helsinki.at/