The Video Essay is a joint project of MUBI and FILMADRID Festival Internacional de Cine. Film analysis and criticism found a completely new and innovative path with the arrival of the video essay, a relatively recent form that already has its own masters and is becoming increasingly popular. The limits of this discipline are constantly expanding; new essayists are finding innovative ways to study the history of cinema working with images. With this non-competitive section of the festival both MUBI and FILMADRID will offer the platform and visibility the video essay deserves. The six selected works will be shown during the dates of FILMADRID (June 7 - 16, 2018) on MUBI’s cinema publication, the Notebook. There will also be a free public screening of the selected works during the festival. The selection was made by the programmers of MUBI and FILMADRID.
Crossing of Time: Marker and Mizoguchi's Ghosts
Video essay by Diego Cepeda, Toni González, Carmela García, Luis Franze
This work arises from the random encounter of two titles having a tie in the 50th/100th place on the Sight & Sound list in 2012, curiously enough, When considering a dialogue between these two films, we see how cinema can generate its own ghosts: in both films the dead and the living coexist; in La Jeteé thanks to time (insubordinate of movement) and in Ugetsu Monogatari thanks to movement (a panoramic view within a sequence shot, which refers to a deceptive narrative continuity).
What would happen if we stripped both films of their construction?
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Este trabajo surge del encuentro azaroso de dos títulos teniendo un empate en el puesto 50/100 en la lista de Sight & Sound del año 2012, curiosamente, dos historias sobre fantasmas y tiempos de guerra: Ugetsu Monogatari (1953) de Kenji Mizoguchi y La Jeteé (1962) de Chris Marker. Al considerar un diálogo entre estas dos películas, vemos como el cine puede generar sus propios fantasmas: En ambas películas coexisten los muertos con los vivos; en La Jeteé gracias al tiempo (insubordinado de movimiento) y en Ugetsu Monogatari gracias al movimiento (una panorámica dentro de un plano secuencia, que remite a una continuidad narrativa engañosa).
¿Qué pasaría si desnudamos ambas películas de su construcción?