La Nature est un temple où de vivants piliers
Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles
L’homme y passe à travers des forêts de symboles
Qui l’observent avec des regards familiers.
Charles Baudelaire,
Correspondances in Les Fleurs du Mal (1857).
On dit que la forêt est ce lieu obscur et secret qui abrite âmes errantes et envoûtées, sorcières à l’effroyable maigreur, vers luisants, nymphes lumineuses, phasmes verts géants, Diane nue lascive dans le clapotis d’une source, jacuzzi de feuilles mortes et de feux follets,
pompiers pyromanes et autres muses nymphomanes. Maybe.
Quelle est cette Forêt à la fois réelle, virtuelle et symbolique dans laquelle nous avons choisi de vous emmener pour ce
premier numéro de Tale(s) ?
Entre espace de fantasmagorie et de fiction, ou lieu de projection de nos visions les plus abstraites, la Forêt n’en finit pas de stimuler nos imaginaires, en même temps que nos préoccupations environnementales nous poussent à nous rapprocher de la nature, pour mieux la comprendre.
Comme son nom le révèle, Tale(s) raconte des histoires, histoires de regards et d’écoute, de mode, d’idées et de créations. Entre la canopée et l’humus, la découverte et l’étrangeté,
le plaisir des sens et de l’esprit, c’est un univers foisonnant, à la croisée des rubriques Life(s), Style(s), Vision(s), Harmony(s) qui s’égrènent au fil des pages…
Couverture: Milo Keller et Julien Gallico
It has been said that the forest is this dark and secret place, home of
wandering and bewitched souls , scary bony witches
glow-worms, bright nymphs giant green stick insects,
naked lascivious Diane bathing in a source,
Jacuzzi of dead leaves and wisps,
arsonists firefighter and other nymphomaniacs muses. Maybe.
What is that Forest, at the same time real, virtual and symbolic
to which we have chosen to take you to for this first issue of Tale(s)?
Between space of fantasy and fiction, or rather
projection of our most abstract visions, the forest has not finished
stimulating our imaginations. At the same time our environmental preoccupation
push us to get closer
of nature, to better understand it.
As its name indicates, Tale (s) tell stories,
stories to be listened and looked at, stories of fashion, ideas and creations. Between canopy and ground, discovery and strangeness
the senses and mind is a universe teeming at the
cross sections of our summary: Life (s), Type (s), Vision (s), Harmony (s)
which are dotted throughout the pages ...
photo : Milo Keller et Julien Gallico
Once upon a time in Life(s) a sensual nature, dramatic, funny, anecdotic et poetic : human nature ?
Nature of time
Urban Outfitters
Fighting forest criminals.
A sensual tribute to the forest, this vidéo transpires morning mist, sighs and caresses to remind us gently that it is the numbers who do the real talking.
Every year, the equivalent of one quarter of Frances surface disapears from the planet. Fiancial motivation drive this human engineered deforestation for illegal lumber trade. The consequences are devastating to climate stability, biodiversity and the forest habitat.
Greenpeace is no beginner in the fight against this absurdity and has asked the European Comission for firm regulations in this area. But the challenge is global and the UN Climate Change Summit will be held in Copenhagn this december.
This absolute emergency requires our support in this fight against massive destruction.
We love forest.
GREENPEACE
Sophie Lebas de Lachesnay
MM&YOU – Java, Indonesia 2009.
The Black Forest Clinic
A look at images by Finnish artist Ilkka Halso
By Raphaële Bidault-Waddington
Restoration is the title of a series of photographs by astonishing Finnish artist Ilkka Halso, whose work explores the artistic and cultural dimensions of natural history in a quasi-scientific way.
Very much in time with our advanced environmental consciousness, Halso’s photographed installations present veritable ateliers for healing and conserving our natural heritage. The artist reveals them to us like so many workshops, tucked away in museum basements, where ancient masterpieces are restored. “As we all know, nature’s in bad shape. It has to be fixed!,” he says cheerfully.
But the images are formidable. It’s hard to believe that these works are only aimed at a kind of “museumizing” of nature, expressing an intellectually conservative point of view that we all know only does harm to the city and inhibits an enduring evolution and collective re-creation of our living space.
Paradoxically, the “day-for-night” ambiance is overtly created by glaringly artificial lighting. Like the vast in situ operating rooms we’re presented with, it literally distorts the very subject of Halso’s work — the so-called “natural” landscape. These quasi movie studios are a series of fictitious spaces that open up before us, becoming imaginary sets for a hypothetical “Black Forest Clinic,” to borrow the title of the dark 1980s German television series.
Lying somewhere between technological Utopia and dramaturgy, between ecosystem therapy and landscape cosmetic surgery, the beauty of Ilkka Halso’s images offers us a persuasive artistic prescription for a healthy examination of nature as fantasized reality, while proclaiming the urgency of environmental intervention to boot. Finland is nonetheless slightly ahead of us on that.
Photos : Charlotte Leduc
cjuliette.com • charlotteleduc.com
Sophie Lebas de Lachesnay
Keihl's
Colette
t's the story of a friendship, between Joy A et Simon B. After training at a tailor, the two friends went on to study at "L'école des arts appliqués de Bâle", Switzerland and their hometown. Two scholarship from the "Federal Bureau de la culture" eventually allowed them to work and bring their line to life, fall/winter 2008-2009.
Four collections later, A.B. are still getting their inspiration from nature as they breath structure.The play between the treatment of volumes and the mix of precious materials are keys to the effects. The materials come from Jakob Schlaêpfer known for his prints or, again, from haute couture embroidery specialist, Forster Rhoner.
Finaly a surprising line of knitwear with straps and stichings .
Ahoulou Burgunder likes to twist genders, probably by...
Sophie Lebas de Lachesnay
directors Ceviche
Style : Sophie Yen-pon
Music : Stéphane Theret
Models : Magdaléna and Willemina c/o Elite
Photos : Milo Keller et Julien Gallico
Style : Annabelle Jouot
Gilles de Givry
Elite Taylor Warren
thanks : Rosa Bohneur
LOOK 1 – leopard print and camel combi dress ANDREA CREWS
Gold belts (worn as necklaces) CHANEL
Sunglasses LINDA FARROW VINTAGE
LOOK 2 - fur coat LES PRAIRIES DE PARIS
• Beaded necklace (worn as headband) CHRISTIAN LACROIX
Yellow leggings REPETTO
Gold belts (worn as necklaces) CHANEL
LOOK 3 - leopard print velvet dress DIANE VON FURSTENBERG
Gold belts (worn as necklaces) CHANEL
LOOKS 4 - beaded dress ALBERTA FERRETTI
Lilac leggings REPETTO
Gold belts (worn as necklaces) CHANEL
LOOK 5 - black and white printed jacket BERNHARD WILLHELM
Pink leggings REPETTO
Gold belts (worn as necklaces) CHANEL
LOOK 6- black lace and cotton dress (worn as top) AMERICAN RETRO
Multi-coloured all in one MANISH ARORA
Gold belts (worn as necklaces) CHANEL
LOOK 7- floral cotton all in one FABRICS INTERSEASON
Fur coat A.F. VANDERVORST
Leather necklaces (worn as headband and belt) NATALIA BRILLI
Gold belts (worn as necklaces) CHANEL
shoes PIERRE HARDY
LOOK 8- cream cotton jacket COSMIC WONDER LIGHT SOURCE
Black leggings ESTRELLA ARCH
Purple quilted bag CHANEL
Gold belts (worn as necklaces) CHANEL
Leather necklace worn as headband NATALIA BRILLI
Gilad Sasporta
Marion Chambrette
Clast
Mascha c/o Elite, Benoit et Stéphanie
Chiara Frasca
Benefit
Urban Decay
Michel Vivien
Erotokritos
Guess
Napapijri
Jonak
Raphaële Bidault-Waddington
Alessandro Mercuri
Laurent Grasso
Low-Science Forest Dweller
Art Review
By Maxence Alcalde
Back in 1962, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,1 Thomas Kuhn returned to the idea of how various scientific communities have accepted cutting-edge technological-industrial gadgets (machines) over the years.
In the 16th century — before the amateur-professional science split was consummated — questioning the scientific machine was secondary; it only came up when theological and philosophical objections were raised. As for scientific modernity, it developed around more and more sophisticated, costly and impressive tools, allowing each phase of research to invalidate or confirm previous hypotheses. But that history of science is not as linear as it may first appear. Meticulous observation of the trajectories of established, highly reputed scientists (Copernicus, Newton, Tesla, Einstein, etc.) shows that many of them individually cultivated, along side their research, a kind of secret garden scattered with strange machines invented to respond to parascientific issues. But for all of them, the central problem remained the same — producing instruments that recreate the most complete vision of our visible and invisible worlds, even if it was necessarily to the detriment of scientific orthodoxy of the time…
Never Before Seen Forest Complex
With his installation, The Horn Perspective (2009), Laurent Grasso offers a rereading of the real-visible dialectic. Enthroned in semi-darkness, at the center of an exhibition space, is a life-size reproduction of the Horn Antenna — a strange scientific shed, midway between a particle beam weapon and the camera obscura — conceived in the mid-‘60s by American radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson. Legend has it that a Big Bang “sonorous fossil” was identified by chance from recordings made by the antenna.
The back wall of the exhibition space serves as a movie screen, reflecting a dolly shot of undergrowth played in a loop. That projection constitutes one of the only light sources in the installation, plunging the viewer into a mysterious atmosphere. That peaceful forest view is regularly interrupted by an unspecified swarm, which is rendered even stranger by the powerful crackling sound that accompanies it. In Grasso’s work, the forest isn’t presented with the reassuring hallmarks of the romanticized form of nature found in idyllic tales. The Horn Perspective film is all about the “rational” forest; it’s an undergrowth arranged and organized by man — not animated by a romantic love of nature, but motivated by very pragmatic concerns (i.e., to provide raw materials). The Western forest is, first and foremost, an energetic reservoir, and only secondarily a pleasure forest or natural reserve. Even if The Horn Perspective’s domesticated, disciplined forest has ghostly spasms, it’s still a man-made machine.
Sonorous Fossil
The recurring sound interference, which at first seems aggressive, eventually melts into the scenery, meshing with a kind of experimental soundtrack. The forest and the imposing Horn Antenna merge when the perceptible trace of an enigmatically shaped sonorous fossil resounds.
Paradoxically, Grasso’s work tosses an element of fiction into the grand narrative he examines. “What interests me are places where fiction becomes science, or science becomes fiction. Fiction in itself doesn’t interest me, and neither does science-fiction in itself. On the other hand, any points of flux, any new perspective put forth in new scientific theories interest me a great deal,” he reports.2 The artist at no time attempts to undermine the varied narratives that he organizes in his unique bestiary, as one would in a curiosity cabinet. Science, art, nature are just so many particles buzzing around the nucleus of reality, within which the amateur scientist of Newton’s day and the contemporary artist collide in a slightly Baroque way.
Nevertheless, Grasso’s body of work isn’t confined to the construction of a scientific-novelistic fiction. Topicality is never far away. “In recent history, terrorists have started using archaic war techniques, basic techniques to defy this technological world — a mat knife, homing pigeons to communicate, the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. That endangers the entire Star Wars universe,” the artist confides.
And it is precisely that Star Wars dimension, seen as postmodern update to Jules Verne tales, that is woven through Grasso’s work. In that way, beyond making viable esthetic objects in the art world, the artist intends to echo the world itself. And not only in the evanescent shape of a ghost.
(QUOTATION):
Science, art, nature are just so many particles buzzing around the nucleus of reality, within which the amateur scientist of Newton’s day and the contemporary artist collide in a slightly Baroque way.
(1) Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, MIT Press, 1962.
(2) Interview with Laurent Grasso and Michel Gautier, March 13, 2009.
A Forest Stroll to the Limits of the Visible and Knowledge
Cécile Bortoletti by Raphaële Bidault-Waddington
(QUOTATION #1):
The symposia have engendered an exchange of often opposing, but never contradictory, ideas. This astonishing encounter of photography, science and art is proof of that…
Better known for her fashion photographs, regularly published in such magazines as Dazed & Confused, Self Service, Crash or Nikkei, Cécile Bortoletti invites us to revisit a recurring element in her work — the forest. But this time without makeup or staging, at the risk of propelling us into another world…
Photographed at night with a “blunt flash,” without reference points or pre-lighting, the forest becomes a kind of “black box,” mirroring the camera obscura where the photographic image is recorded. It is also an access route toward the paradoxical world of the unconscious and the ethereal.
These bizarre images reveal a hollow, almost abstract, space, becoming an echo chamber for our darkest thoughts.
So it is not by chance that these photographs were exhibited at UNESCO in Paris, in July 2009, in conjunction with The Invisible Universe scientific symposium, where the elite of international astronomical research came together to share their knowledge on black matter and black energy.
Just as the photographic image is often described as a “black hole” — meaning a universe from another reality in which time stops — other scientific concepts are also used figuratively in the artistic world. (See the following page.)
(QUOTATION #2):
We leapt at the chance to speak with some of the scientists who participated in the symposium, to get their take on the photographic question.
Some exciting exchanges!
For those of you who like to ruminate at the crossroads of art and science, here are their responses. Take a listen, as you let yourself be swept away by Cécile Bortoletti’s images.
An interview with Alain Riazuelo (in French), astrophysicist, Astrophysics Institute of Paris; researcher, CNRS.
An interview with ProPier-Stefano Corasaniti (in French), senior researcher, LUTH (Laboratoire de l`Univers et Théories, Paris) and the CNRS.
An interview with professor Georgi Dvali (in English), astrophysicist and researcher, CERN (Geneva), New York University and LM University (Munich).
Urban Forest
An original creation by PIIMS® (Petite Industrie de l’Image Sensorielle)
(QUOTATION #1):
It was part of the realm that man couldn’t control, where all kinds of human fauna, fringe groups, paupers, renegades, pirates or theater troops survived.
Rereading The Baron in the Trees (Il Barone Rampante) by Italo Calvino (1957), we recall that the forest wasn’t always the oasis of well-being and poetry we think of it as today. It was part of the realm that man couldn’t control, where all kinds of human fauna, fringe groups, paupers, renegades, pirates or theater troops survived.
Anarchic and wild, human organization was invented there as an extension of the laws of the natural ecosystem, without pity or morals. It was the very opposite of the city — the conquered, constricted, thought out, governed domain. The forest was the “zone from outside” that others had imagined, elsewhere and otherwise in other times. In his science-fiction novel, La Zone du Dehors, Alain Damasio reinvents it once again in the form of a Saturn satellite asteroid, not unlike the zone Danish hippies hoped for in Christiania, the neighborhood in the heart of Copenhagen that’s remained autonomous for more than thirty years.
But things change, alternative experiences become institutionalized, all of nature is in the process of being ruled and marginal places move.
Is it not at the outer limits of the urban jungle, which has become so complex and difficult to grasp, that other forms of life are being invented? The great metropolises of the world — from Paris to Mexico City, from Shanghai to Los Angeles — have become fantastic ecosystems in perpetual mutation, veritable urban forests in chiaroscuro whose vines of communication and entangled exchanges cannot be unraveled. Ecology and economy get muddled; interior and exterior spaces mutually consume one another; the landscape becomes stratified; distances contort along the lines of transport facilities. It is impossible to grasp the urban reality, impossible to read the city screens without projecting our thousands of fragments of knowledge onto it, like our most unbridled imagination. Translucent layers reveal, conceal, deceive. Our perception is put to the test, as if we were incessantly standing before the tree that conceals the forest. We’re disoriented, with no perspective.
In this upside-down world, city buildings and the images covering them turn into synthetic flora, while elements that circulate — vehicles and all kinds of objects — become artificial fauna. Never completely adapted, man pursues his adventure there.
And as every inversion has its mirror, in our contemporary vocabulary, the wooded forest becomes strangely conceptual and abstract, like a mental landscape where the mind comes to rest, take its imagination for a stroll, and project its visions onto it — be they artistic, imaginary or scientific.
It is no longer a dense, organic, innervated hive of activity, but a sleek metaphysical space and, paradoxically, emancipated from the laws of nature.
(QUOTATION #2/CF Maquette):
It is impossible to grasp the urban reality, impossible to read the city screens without projecting our thousands of fragments of knowledge onto it, like our most unbridled imagination.
####
"L 'Atelier Martel" a young parisian architect agency created by Stephane Cachat, Marc Chassin, and Laurent Noël, gives us a chance to understand how much an architectural project, no mater its size, can play a strategic role in the development of a given territory.
The starting point is a smart encounter between Laurent Noël and a house and chalet builder in the mountain and wood region of the Vosges (France),
not the kind, while being a good engineer and entrepreneur, to risk himself out of the traditional local style.
Between a desire for environmental innovation and honest environmental reflection, a trademark of "L'Atelier Martel", it’s the project of building a country cottage in Liézey that made them collaborate. In order to limit the consumption of energy as well as of concrete, two strong lobbies in France, and to deal intelligently with local traditions, the technical and aesthetic bias is the one of a wooden house, near perfect in term of environment. The Canadian well ensures a constant inside temperature of 14°c that will be fully completed by an economic heating system. Rain’s water gets optimum recycling.
On a aesthetic viewpoint, economy and simplicity prevail with the desire to stick to the local tradition of low budget architecture, but also a certain radicalism that avoids all decorum and delivers straight edges as well as a solid volume.
While accelerating the modernity of the construction, the structure in polyhedron stands as a subtle reconciliation between Southern orientation’s defenders (traditional model with light optimization) vs optimisation paralléle à la ligne de courbe,(functionalist model since the 1950's).
Contemporary Luxury.
Just as the traditional chalet must have a solidly anchored concrete bottom floor to compensate for a hilly landscape, the desire to limit the use of this energy consuming material, motivates the adjustment of volume on the ground level. Which contributes to the originality of the construction. There again the constraint of the environment, the geographical context as much as the ecological, offer the occasion for esthetic and technical innovation. A bit de-structured in half levels, but perfectly matching the surface volume the windows seem to be giving us a discreet wink and at the same time preserving the unity of the volume. Isn't it for us an invitation to walk in when the ambiance is so pleasant ?! The full wood interior is confusingly warm in such a harsh climate.
Sober and elegant like the exterior, the room arrangement balances common space and the privacy of the rooms. Indispensable to the well being of the hosts and the visitors who came to look for a protected area to contemplated nature in silence.
Then isn't it the contemporary luxury the over-busy city dweller is looking for, to disconnect, slow down the rhythm and reconnect with the pulse of nature, wood and forest, in a space of modern design stylized and comfortable.
At the opposite of an old fashion and dusty cottage in a mountain region not the most attractive, the work of " L' Atelier Martel " in Liézey opens a breach and the possibility to renew the local tourism offer, slightly old fashioned.
Territorial strategy.
So, rather then seeing this architectural project like an isolated case and maybe anecdotic to the eyes of those who are only interested by flashy architecture of the Guggenheim-Bilbao type or Louvre Abu Dhabi, lets imagine it as being the start of an ambitious territorial strategy, respectful of a local heritage.
From that exemplary prototype an entire chain of development and valuable creation can be imagined on the model of the valley of Voralberg, in Austria. Thru the years it became the area in Europe with the highest density in contemporary architecture. Visited and highly commented by the international community!
By encouraging collaboration between architects and proactive designer as well as talented local contractors looking to innovate and better their know how, its an entire economic fabric and professional environment who tends to modernize.
If the region multiplies these types of architectural projects, it is, on top, the cultural and tourism potential that gets a boost.
As well as the timber industry, so presented in the Vosges region. The French forests are little if not exploited, and construction wood is often imported from Siberia or Scandinavia. If construction patterns using wood intensify in this region of eastern France, their are good chances it will allow to stimulate the local wood industry...
Rational ecology.
From an architectural bias centered on the use of wood for the construction of an isolated house in the Vosges, here comes suddenly the possibility to integrate and unify under one future bound sensitive and inspiring vision, various professional, cultural, and political groups to often in opposition.
L Atelier Martel rightly uses the terminology "rational ecology" to signify the fact that a profound and creative exchange between local partners opens the door to dialogue, exchange, and complicity between all the players. Initiating a dynamic
of territorial development, authentic and organic.
Environment’s poetic.
Echoing the exciting program of ecology research and aesthetics commitment conducted by the laboratory LADYSS 5a consortium of international universities) it’s a process that accompanies each of the project of the Parisian agency. Who likes to ventures in remote places in France and abroad. More then a question of legal and technical standards, their approach reminds us that a poetic and aesthetic interaction with the environment is maybe the best way to deal with its incertitude and complexity.
On a more theoretical vu-point we can also think the aesthetic approach of environment and as a way to reconnect what is called "the intangible heritage" or, again, "the intellectual capital" with the aspects and tangible expressions of our social and natural ecosystem.
For the past fifteen years, we talk more and more of development (economic, cultural, and social) based on the immaterial, which is characterized notably by politics of "Villes de la Connaissance ". It is based on the cultural and intellectual wealth of a territory, the universities, artistic and scientist talents (cf."La Classe Créative", R. Florida) to create value.
By finding inspiration in books like Les Trois Ecologies, by Felix Guattari (Paris, Galilée, 1989) the challenge is to be able to reinvent an organic vision of the human wealth, included its most metaphysical and ethereal thoughts and projects.
Like a forest fire.
We were all just barely teenagers, when in the fall of '84 Lloyd Cole and the Commotions released their new album « Rattlesnakes ». The media stamped it « college rock » and this album indeed was going to crystallise the high school years of a generation that had not yet experienced war (the likes of the Beatles vs the Stones, mods vs rockers, Donovan vs Dylan…)
So at aged 13, you had to take a stand and pick a side.
New Wave had reached a point of no return with bands like Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, and Heaven 17. Just a warning of even worse things to come for mankind..(Wham , Rick Ashley, Nick Kershaw, Kajagoogoo…)
One had to react. So we bought Rattlesnakes .
On the cover their was an open door. We walked in.
Inside, we discovered a brand new world where Ronald Reagan,
Margaret Thatcher, Bernard Tapie, Jack Lang and Marc Toesca did not exist. A world where the devastating materialism of the past decade had no more rights .
And there in an open-air shed, we would read books by the corner fire:
Play it as it lays by Jean Didion (the album title is a direct reference to the book) Norman Mailer, Simone de Beauvoir, Renata Adler....walking into the woods, we discovered that Lloyd Cole had laid records on his path, like hints to be used to put a story back together: Blood on the tracks by Dylan, Velvet Underground's third album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo by the Byrds, New skin for the old ceremony by Leonard Cohen, Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys...
All these albums became instant talismans, to be listened to as we watched the rain fall or the sun rise.
In the ideal world of Rattlesnake, streets had girls names and we were driving Citroën's Deux chevaux. The "all synthetic" that plastified the world's sound system, was, for the first time in years, being turned off.
Acoustic guitars and wind instruments had been brought back out.
Hidden in the bushes, distant cousins: the Smiths and Prefab Sprout
were soon to come out of the thickest to revamp the flame of rock. Back to basics, to song-writing. In the horizon only one certainty: violins are always right.
But Rattlesnakes ended up being a curse for Lloyd Cole who never managed to deliver such greatness again.
Indeed half way into an almost perfect album bursts out an instant timeless classic. The kind of song you write once in a lifetime and
that strikes you for eternity:
I believe in love, Ill believe in anything
Thats gonna get me what I want and get me off my knees
Then well burn your house down, dont it feel so good
Theres a forest fire every time we get together
Doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo
Lloyd Cole was letting us in on some thing essential we had not understood yet: in 1984, for the first time, we had fallen in love.
Like a hurricane passing over us, Forest Fire came and carried us away.
Wrong Turn is an american horror movie (2003/Director: Rob Schmidt) I had the chance to see recently. It is the story of a few unlucky young folks whose road crosses a gang of degenerated red necks serial killers with elephant man faces. A bloody hunt with a terminal goal. The action takes place in the middle of a remote forest, somewhere in rural America. Of course a couple will manage to survive by taking out miraculously the assailants at the end of a terrifying suspense...
This scenario recalls many others, as he functions according to the codes of American B movies. The likes of of the ones at the cross road of horror/genre movies: slasher meets survival. But mostly dependent on its geographical situation,
classifying him in a type of cinema I would call "the forest film".
Deliverance, directed by John Boorman in 1972 started the trend.
Many of us still remember this group of friends on their way to pay a tribute to nature, canoeing their way down the river in a wild untamed area that is doomed to disappear. Followed by a bad encounter, with a few locals, that will eventually deteriorate beyond the point of no return. The approached themes (relation between man and nature and his own savagery) and the dramatic tension found in Deliverance makes it an incomparable movie. It installs and defines precisely the codes proper to the gender: a small group of individuals form an entity, superior and preexisting to the story.They often are city dwellers ( corporate workers,...students) who found themselves threatened by one or more creatures
(human or not) in a natural environment, suddenly turned wild or even hostile and sleazy. The painful and terrifying ordeal the characters have to deal with, ends up
strengthening the friendship among survivors .
Expression of values
The singular interest in film de fôret, in spite of the gender limitations found in its narrative structure, holds the promise of a great expression diversity in its dialectic:
-The artistic ambition: Filmaker like M. Night Shyamalan (The Village, 2004 Etats Unis) treat danger as an assumption thus fear as an irrational phenomenon. Or again, Terry Gilliam (The Brothers Grimm, 2005, Etats Unis ) mixing reality (the life of the Grimm brothers) and fiction (the story they tale) treating the subversive function of ferry tales and the role of terror as a tool of enslavement.
-The political speech: Like Serge Leroy with La Traque (1975) who inaugurates the genre in France with a social satire in the form of a violent attack against the cowardliness of a group coming from small provincial bourgeoisie, to confront our own bestiality.
-The diversity of the scenaristic approach: or how to articulate your story around a specific canvass. Dead End ( french-american film by Jean Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa 2007) comes to mind. There the story slowly sinks into the fantastique: the characters found themselves stuck on a road that ends up as a loop and are murdered by a quasi undetectable enemy. Same with Severance (English movie directed by Christopher Smith 2006) who intelligently mixes horror and humor.
The diversity of treatment: such as the utilization of a subjective camera to lead the story in The Blair Witch Project ( American film- 1999-, Directed by Daniel Myric and Eduardo Sanchez) as well as the marketing techniques like an Internet buzz giving credibility to rumors generating a confusion between reality and fiction.
A movie in particular strikes my attention, its Hansel & Gretel a Korean film directed by Pil-Sung Yim in 2007. First because it seems freely inspired from the kids tale, and because its screenplay puts it at extreme limits of the genre (forest film) . And also because it is symptomatic of the international/worldly/global dimension of this cinematographic niche. To the same extent: Manhunt a Norwegian film by Patrick Sysversen (2008) or El rey de la montana a spanish film (Les Proies in french) by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego (2008). We see that the genre is very prolific in Great Britain (Eden Lake, Wilderness, Broken, Severance,Dogs Soldiers) and more surprisingly in France (Brocéliandre, Promenons-nous dans les bois, Cibles, Vertige...). Dog Soldiers (Directed by Neil Marshal in 2002) a pretty dull and boring movie by the way, is the kind of work, just like The Blair Witch Project and Dead End who slides towards the fantastique or like Predator towards science-fiction.
-Reality vs fiction: When looking at all these movies, an obvious finding as of the very distinct nature of the assailants, you can see they don't exist as such. What comes out then, is the existence of an under-genre to the forest film which falls from what we call animal-survival: when the character are being attacked by an animal. Often of incredible size, just like in Anaconda (American film by Luis Llosa/1977) in which you can see Jennifer Lopez being pursued by a giant snake in the south-american jungle...hilarious. And more: Grizzly Park whose specificity resides in the presence of two distinct types of assailants, an extremely ferocious bear and a serial killer whose escape has lead him to the same place. Some of these movies are clearly inspired by the world of children tales. They remind us how much the mysterious nature of the forest as a basis to story telling, gives us numerous options to exploit. What I call the forest film is just one specific option whose immutable codes make it often very asphyxiating in terms of creativity in spite of its transgeneric dimension and the immemorial nature of its subject.
1) Roxy Music, Country life
2) Indochine, Alice&June
3) Echo & the Bunnymen, Crocodiles
4) Devendra Banhart, Cripple Crow
5) Neil young, Hey Mey my my (single)
6) Scarlett Johansson, Anywhere I lay my head
7)Sunshade ‘n rain, Naturally
8) Lazare, Principles of geometry
9) Humble Pie, Thunderbox
Ethnic zombie
The general psychosis caused by influenza A infects us the spirit, general paranoia.The fear of contact, of the other, translates into a heightened hygiene.
Michael Jackson is dead
leaving us with a zombie image of a man in a physical decay governed by his own phobias. Running in a Loop, images of the video-clip Thriller parade as an ode to his life.
This famous mocking laugh mocks us, quite rightly: they laugh at us and our modern anxieties. They individualize us, the other is the enemy. The unknown breeds fear and exerts a paradoxical fascination on us.
The one that paralyzes us, preventing us from thinking carefully; these frights not being only generated by an infantile fear of the forest, darkness, or solitude, but also by a reality far more tragic ...
A history of modern horror.
The oracles of music had warned us.
Our collective schizophrenia is only increasing.
I got a taste of terror, and I reflect on what I was served on a regular basis: all these dogmas and sermons. I can not be the public opinion, because no one can resume or confound itself to this sole mass state.By trying to detach him self
the individual responds to the community, but he can not separate from her.The improbable complementary of opposites.
Disturbing uncanniness.
So, I listen. Hopping for answers that would allow me to understand that all things acquired are just
an illusion.There is nothing to fear from emptiness, absence, unconsciousness, loneliness, or the unknown.
Fever ray's universe is pomp and disturbing.
Swedish Karin Dreijer Andersson, singer of the chimeric band The Knife delivers here her solo project: a slow and delicious frenzy.A canoe where apathetic children are sitting, crossing quietly a forest in the night. As they are being observed by strange tribal looking character.
A large empty pool in a bourgeois country house. Scattered inert bodies.Sounds of south american indian tribes, mixed with Nordic strangeness.In this house, more dead bodies. Macabre spectacle of a european Bourgeoisie. Karin, her face make up representing a skeleton, takes the childrens away as she disappears in the lake's reflections.(if I had a heart)
Progressive rock.
On the lighter side, Rainbow Arabia, a california duo/couple: Danny & Tiffany Preston, just came with a new EP:
Kabuki Mono, on the label Manimal Vinyl. Their second release after the (overly) discreet and so precious, The Basta.A record in phase with the name of the band, a kaleidoscope of electronic sounds ranging from psychedelic to punk.Sometimes, even borrowing from world music: libanese synthesizers and percussion.
The enchanting voice, almost sepultural, coming from this snake charmer hypnotizes with its piercing crescendos.She will turn you docile.
The formidable producers: Switch, the British and Diplo, the American, composed an album (Guns don't kill people... lazers do) under the futuristic name Major Lazer. Influenced by Jamaïcan dance-hall as well as afro-beat and Brazilian groove.A plethora of artists have lent their voice for this colorful, exciting, phantasmagoric, sometimes even lubricious project: Santigold, Mr lexx, Nina Sky, Jovi Rockwell, Ms Thing, Future Trouble, just to name a few.
It could be the story of a black GI joe on a surfboard attacking zombie vampires before they threaten the Egyptian
empire.In a psychedelic and futuristic setting.(Hold the line).C-thru is a captivating number by Lemonade & Glasser you can find on the compilation Let's Kiss and make up. (Tsunami-Addiction).It evokes Indian dances, which gradually evolve into a sand desert, over electronic music and to finally escape in a cloud of hallucinogenic smoke.I close my eyes.Zombies are eternal.
The magical mountain
Wolfang Waight is a known German composer and producer. He is also the co-founder of the electronic music label Kompakt. Most notably distinguished himself under the pseudo Mike Inc. with various productions for prestigious labels like Warp (lyrics, Polka Trax), Harvest ( a collaboration with Jörg Burger for the seri Las Vegas) Force. Inc ( we call it acid,Live Evil) and Sahko (Rosengranz). After a LP that came out on Profan in 1995 he made, under the name Gas, his first eponym album (label Mille Plateaux,1996). A bright and raw minimalist album, with an emphasis on wide sonorities and rich textures. Each song delivers a great sensation of fulness as well as a suffocating desert wasteland
that almost strips indefinitely.
Nearly a year later came out Zauberbger*, its twilight counterpart. If similar in conception to its predecessor, the atmosphere is much darker and it sounds, more surd. Taciturn layers articulate themselves around a heavy and hypnotic rhythm. Embellished by horns, coming and going from the distance, omnipresent but never vulgar.The songs are long, they work like spells with their litanies unveiling in dark trances. We found ourselves in a space made of mountains and valleys entirely covered by a dark forest.The ambiance is cold as ice almost terrifying. Nevertheless all is clear.
*Available on CD or vinyl.