I took a seat in the Egyptian's big theater last Sunday, and when the movie started I realized I had made a mistake. "Some Kind of Wonderful" seemed like a fascinating document of the Eighties (the hair! the clothes!) but I eventually found my way to the little theater--which had as big an audience as the John Hughes movie.
The program began with 5 silent shorts from 1966-1969:
"Hand Movie"--a dance piece consisting of a single close-up of wiggling fingers. Yeah, right, but after five minutes, it became a compelling drama.
"Volleyball"--a ball rolling into a corner, then cornered/stopped by the sneakered feet of somebody (YR). The grainy black and white was probably lush in the original film.
"Rhode Island Red"--Ten minutes, mostly a single, static shot, inside a chicken coop. The action consisted of the twitchy gestures of the birds, who formed a shimmery abstract texture, like an early Philip Guston painting.
"Trio Film"--Steve Paxton, Becky Arnold and a big white balloon in a minimal apartment interior. This is what YR does best: a minimal structure within which the performers can't help but express themselves--flirt, stare, giggle.
"Line" Disorienting goof. Are we looking at the sky? A snowy field? A girl appears, writing, and turns to smile.
Question: Was it impossible to get film versions of these movies? Video is better than nothing, but I can't help thinking I haven't experienced the real thing.
Then there came her 2002 video, "After many a summer dies the swan: hybrid," which is made up of footage documenting rehearsals with Mikhail Barryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project, with blocks of text creeping across the screen with dire messages about the decadence of Viennese culture 100 years ago.
YR's work is better than her sources, but you have to put up with the raw material. The dance footage kept alternating from minimalism to slapstick.
In her comments afterwords, she admitted that there was some deliberate teasing of Barryshnikov involved, "It's Barryshnikov! He's a celebrity! I can't just let that slip by without comment!"
The words of the evening: "foregrounding," "framing," and "animating inanimate things." All of this would be intolerable if it wasn't mixed in with her goofy sense of humor.
There's more Rainer screenings coming up. Can't wait to see "Lives of Performers" again!
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