By the Lake (1994) [NR]
Written by:
Patrick Bokanowski
Directed by:
Patrick Bokanowski
Release Date:
September 26, 1994
Original Title:
Au bord du lac
Genres:
Animation | Documentary
Production Companies:
CNC
Commission Cinéma de la Procirep
Kira B.M. Films
La Sept-Arte
Production Countries:
France
Ratings / Certifications:
US: NR
Runtime: 6
Bokanowski returns to the complex - and mind-bending - optical array of pinholes, mirrors, prisms, and refractive substrates of his earlier film, La Plage to create the whimsical and playful Au bord du lac. The film is composed of mundane, everyday scenes of recreation and leisure on an idyllic, sunny day at a park that overlooks a lake - rowing a boat, playing a game of volleyball, rollerskating, bicycling, reading a newspaper, sunbathing, riding on horseback, or strolling on the promenade - shot through optical distortions to create fractured and knotted images that resemble embellished, gothic fairytale illustrations or appear to resolve into morphing, geometric patterns of fluid motion. Evoking the vibrant colors and sun-soaked palette of an invigorated Vincent van Gogh in Arles, Bokanowski transforms the quotidian into an infinitely mesmerizing dynamic kaleidoscope of shape-shifting textures and self-reconstituting objects of organic, abstract art.
"Au bord du lac" takes place namely at the surroundings of a lake. All sorts of sports and activities, familial, lonesome, adult or childish come into focus in this unique experimental short, but in an unexpected way: the image is distorted, by what at the beginning seems either digital means or multi-prismatic lens, yet is more likely to be a sheet of metal with slight bumps. And if this seems to either take all the magic of the image or an insistence on a secondary matter, yet figuring out this aspect of the image, its puzzling materiality is part of the game and the pleasure. I reveled in some abstract tableaux, almost still or in motion, evoking the grand traditions of painting, and ranging from the texture inside the head from Magritte's "The Secret Double", to a cubism in motion after Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d' Avignon". The bouncing soundtrack was fitting and quite evoking. A wholesome work of art.
