This
supremely lyrical Beating makes some
brutal connections by Peter Goddard
Beating comes down hard. The single
images popping out through the blurred swirl in Barbara Sternberg's new
"experimental" film are loaded for action and reaction: Nazis, lynched
Jews, a flaming poker stuck savagely into a doll's eye, lightning, still more
fire, luridly lit sexual organs, couples struggling, dancers romping.
As
the independent local filmmaker explains, the thread connecting this visual
overload is equally charged. It makes "the connection between Nazism, the
patriarchy and feminism," no less. And that's not to forget her visual and
verbal notions about memory, memory-loss, forgetting, forgiveness and revenge
which are also threaded through the hour-long film being shown at 6:30 tonight
by Cinematheque Ontario at the AGO's
Jackman Hall and tomorrow by Pleasure Dome at Cinecycle, 317 Spadina Ave. (rear
entrance).
So
whatever else Beating is, it isn't Forrest Gump. That's the good news. Even
better is that for all this content overload this is one Beating that's relatively easy to take-that's supremely lyrical in
fact. (One more Gump-shot. For all
its "simplicity"-or simple-mindedness, take your pick-Forrest
is one terribly angry guy and Gump is
one terribly angry movie. For all the harshness of its barrage of sight and
sound, Beating is remarkably at peace
with itself. It's the contrast between repressed Muzak
and let-it-all-hang-out jazz).
Sternberg's
aim was to explore "the pre-verbal, emotional life that moves
through" these images, she was telling me earlier this week. "I hope it's a film, not just a film
that's making a statement. Why make a film if what I want is a polemic? I don't
think film is a medium for that, really. I don't know if an hour's film is
rigorous enough."
Her
preference for rapid, flickering images-they're like brush strokes thickening
layer after layer of paint-recalls filmmaking's earliest, pre-movie days when
it was evolving alongside early photography.
No
less than any photographer, Sternberg is fascinated with the potential of a
single image - there are lots of birds and water images - and with exploring
them from different vantage points.
The
surface of Beating is lovely, an
evolution of changing shapes through a beautiful array of grays, whites and
blacks, then later through muted colors.
Although
it is in fact a collection of 25 short bits shot at different times, the
dramatic shape is seamless. "I originally cut the film as separate little
films", she said, explaining her work method. "I don't have a 10-day
or three-week shoot. I'm collecting (images) as I go along. So a lot of it
comes together with editing and shooting, then more editing and
shooting."
She's
cautious with sound. "The previous film (Through And Through, 1992) had a soundtrack—it also dealt with
being a woman and being Jewish-but as I worked on it I realized I wanted the
images to be silent. So it stayed silent and I used the soundtrack (with Beating). "Sound is really strong.
Whatever you do with it, especially if the sound is in words, has an effect. (A
film's) visual strength can be overlooked when there is sound."
Originally published in The Toronto Star,