A cura della redazione Seeyousound
The return of the ’80s to cinema, yesterday with the Smiths saga told by Shoplifters of the World and today with Les magnétiques, is a fact. And it is curious that, alongside the celebration of the analogue and of a far more physical and tactile way of enjoying art and music, even on the political level we hear worrying similarities with the tensions of that period.
Stefano Bizarre Quario
I FILM
The film programme of Day 2 of Seeyousound 8 immediately puts us face to face with several heavyweights of the programme that span the different sections and the various side events.
In the observation offered to us by Stefano Quario, there is also a traceable line between the opening night and one of the films screened for LP Feature, namely Les Magnetiques.
Set in 1980s France, the film is a debut feature that is romantic yet at the same time bitter, in which music plays a central role in expressing the characters' feelings and dreams, but also in contextualising a historical and cultural moment of full transition.
After the screening in Sala Cabiria, the Q&A with the film's actress Marie Colomb highlighted all aspects of her experience on set, from the conception of the work by director Vincent Mael Cardona to the path the film has followed since its debut at the Quinzaine des Realisateurs at Cannes in 2021.
The cards played by LP Doc to open the section are, respectively, Poly Styrene: I’m a clichè e The Conductor.
The first of the two was probably one of the most anticipated films for Seeyousound's most expert and historically erudite audience. A daughter, Celeste Bell, stages the intimate attempt to reclaim an image, the iconic and multifaceted one of her late mother, Mary Joan Elliott Said, a 1970s punk icon under the stage name Poly Styrene. A vibrant and brazen frontwoman of X-Ray Spex, she was an inspiration on stage as the first Black singer to lead a punk band, and off stage for having chosen to set the persona aside and proudly face her demons.
Another woman is at the centre of The Conductor: Marin Alsop, the world-renowned conductor and the first woman to wield the baton of numerous orchestras, from the Baltimore Symphony to the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. The film tells with inspiration the story of a determined woman whom people tried to prevent from realising her dream and her vocation, interweaving her confessions with archive footage (including Leonard Bernstein, her teacher), showing care and balance in exploring the private and public dimensions of the character.
The tribute to special guest Stephen Kijak continued with a double screening of two of his films, respectively Stones in Exile e Sid & Judy. The first is a documentary about a very particular moment in the life of the greatest and longest-lived band in history, the Rolling Stones, on the brink of collapse before picking themselves up by making the masterpiece Exile On Main Street.
Sid & Judy, by contrast, deals with the turbulent relationship between Judy Garland and Sid Luft, probing the complex figure of the diva at a moment of professional rebirth.
Interspersed with a conversation with the director led by Carlo Griseri and Alessandro Battaglini, director and deputy director of the festival, both films are discussed in an interesting Q&A with broad active participation from the audience, helped by Kijak's great frankness and extroversion.
Receptive to the questions and comments, which covered a good part of his filmography, the director shared numerous anecdotes about the behind-the-scenes stories of his documentaries and the memorable encounters they have generated, from the Rolling Stones to Lynyrd Skynyrd.
THE LIVE ACTS OF SYS8
One of the most eagerly awaited events for the Seeyousound audience was undoubtedly Lorem Live A/V, which took place as the last event of DAY 2 for the Soundies section.
Lorem is a project by Francesco D’Abbraccio, an Italian musician and visual artist, who performed in Sala 1, offering a powerful union between the images on the big screen and the imposing sonic stimulation of live music.
From the very first moment, we found ourselves catapulted into an immersive, multisensory experience, capable of captivating and generating a fascination mixed with unease, which made the evening an event worth telling everyone about, especially those who consider themselves unaccustomed to leaving their comfort zone, so that they too can enjoy a show devoted to visual and sonic experimentation.
EVENTI COLLATERALI
Seeyousound is not only cinema in the strict sense, but also side events that, day by day, enrich and diversify the festival's programme.
This Day 2 started in the morning with the first Masterclass hosted by BenQ, held at the Recontemporary venue at via Gaudenzio Ferrari 12, before moving to Sala 3 of Cinema Massimo for the second session in the afternoon.
Emidio Frattaroli, editor-in-chief of AV Magazine, set about explaining everything that lies behind the simple enjoyment of audiovisual content, in order to raise awareness when engaging with these products.
Often unaware of all the meticulous details that differentiate each projection system, from the most traditional to the most advanced and cutting-edge, we realise that we have highly advanced image reproduction technologies at our disposal without, however, having fully understood their qualities or having taken a critical approach to telling them apart.
Also at Recontemporary is You are my anchor point, the solo exhibition by Karol Sudolski, who, together with Francesco D’Abbraccio, will also be one of the protagonists of the panel on 20 February Distrust Everything.
In the afternoon, it was possible to visit the exhibition, also enjoying an aperitif provided by the Perino Vesco bakery, with the artist present on site.
The central theme, the deconstruction of corporeality, is tackled through the technique of photogrammetry and the fragmentation of video clips and augmented reality works.
The scenario that emerges is hard to label, deliberately disorienting but also stimulating in making us reconsider the certainties and anchor points of our shared experience.
The exhibition can be visited at Recontemporary until 12 March.
Day 2 of Seeyousound took us straight to the heart of the festival, among all its attractions. The journey continues on Sunday 20 with a great many screenings, including the fiction films Other People e Poser, the first screening of the section Rising Sound: Music Is The Weapon, ovvero Leave the door open, the afternoon panel Distrust Everything at Recontemporary with Karol Sudolski e Francesco D’Abbraccio, the sonorizzazione dal vivo of Inferno, a 1911 film, curated by Enrico Gabrielli and the double early-evening slot where you can choose between two music biopics: the one about the A-ha, A-ha – The Movie, and the documentary Moby Doc su Moby.
