Danses Macabres, Skeletons, and Other Fantasies

An essay that contains multitudes. A pensive writer and two focused filmmakers invite us to sit with them through waves of summer hours in the Portuguese shade with humble vistas, luminous wine, and miniature cigarettes which are all accompanied by the soundtrack of rustling trees and meowing cats. The camera is placed and composes its images as thoughtfully as the many paintings, frescoes, and sculptures we will examine in the film. What makes this work unique is that as time passes we become a hypnotised voyeur whose feet wade in the flow of these intricate conversations. The subjects of this free-form film sit so still and for such long periods that they become akin to the figures in the murals that they study. In this transfixed state, they dissect the very nature of images, their origins, sacrificial yearnings, how they serve us, and most importantly how we choose to observe and absorb them.

Three beams of thought emerge from its authors: Rita Azevedo Gomes, Pierre Léon, and Jean-Louis Schafer. The trio is perhaps not always in actual dialogue but contribute in the way that a camera is placed, stock footage is shared, an image is curated, or a conversation is edited. As stated at the very beginning, the film works as a sort of manifesto. Here there is no precise connection between prehistoric engravings, danses macabres, a Fragonard landscape, a Bosch painting, or perhaps the portrait of Hélène Fourment. As we examine these forms and figures brought delicately to our attention, we are privy to the intersections of these thematics but also shown the rare essence and depth of their friendship. When speaking on danses macabres Léon says that as the skeletons dance, "death is free", and much like the danses themselves this film does not confine itself to any kind of rigid choreography. Danses macabres, squelettes et autres fantaisies contains courage, it chooses to venerate the gesture of discovery by demonstrating the formulation of thought.

Sofia Bohdanowicz
Filmmaker