James Benning's "remake" of John Cassavetes's Faces (1968) will see its world premiere at the Film Museum in Vienna on November 19. In its notes on the series James Benning: New Work, the Museum calls his Faces an "unexpected venture into the world of 'found footage' filmmaking." As Benning explains, albeit in German at the Museum's site, he's reconstructed Cassavetes's Faces in such a way that 1) it's comprised entirely of shots of single faces, 2) each actor and actress is on screen as long as he or she is in the original and 3) each scene is exactly as long as it is in the original. So, to take Benning's example, if a scene lasts half an hour and Gena Rowlands is in that scene half the time, then we will see Rowlands for 15 minutes and then the other two characters in that scene. This reconstruction, he notes, remains steadfastly true to its title.
The Museum will also be premiering Benning's YouTube Trilogy, "an eerie collection of materials from the world's largest moving image archive: 'The film mirrors what is out there, and what is looked at.' (James Benning)"
Benning will be on hand throughout the series (November 16 through 19) and will take part in post-screening discussions following these premieres. Thanks to Blake Williams for the alert.
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