“It is strange to feel so strongly and so simple is the evanescence of life — and your ...” With respect and appreciation for the educational contribution in the field of film criticism to you, oldys.
It was all there was.
All of this burned us.
It's all lilo, belo,
squirming and twitching,
And it took power.
and dragged to the grave,
And he was pulling on the pedestals.
And then it came down.
And then I forgot...
Joseph Brodsky
“Orchestra” is a clip performance also a kind of human orchestra in the field of the film industry. Standing at the origins of experimental animation, Zbigniew Rybchinsky gave a lot of innovations to more than one colleague in the shop. Television – experiments with high-resolution video and high-definition technology, as well as clips for songs by Mick Jagger, Pet Shop Boys, John Lennon; filmmakers – visual effects of “fluid space” and “frozen time” (without the last “Matrix” Wachowski would hardly have acquired the status of a landmark picture). And if for the technique of his performances in the early 70s it was possible to safely put the highest points, chanting at the top of his voice: “We sing glory to the madness of the brave!” – then he received the top ten for artistry in the form of a golden Oscar statuette in 1983 thanks to the short film “Tango”. And through it, and through the video "Imagine", and through the award-winning "Emmy" for special effects "Orchestra" through the thread is not an attempt to answer the question: "Are we dancing shadows?" Or are we casting a shadow? — and the attempt to question whether social being really determines consciousness or everything happens exactly the opposite, in response to the comprehension of man’s place on earth and his involvement in the “ridiculous sober era”.
Parade of images and events, psychedelic equal to Bulgakov's ball with Satan, no less, sweeps before the audience's eye in the "Orchestra" in 57 minutes of screen time, illustrating fragments from musical classics from Mozart, Chopin, Albioni, Rossini, Schubert and Ravel. You won't be fed bread here, but the show is fine. On the move, without warning, death reverses, the dead, like in the “Blue Bird” of Maeterlink, meet with relatives, before having time to feast on their own wake. As Adam and Eve watch, the snake creeps away from them and sin in Episode 3. The immoral apple turns out to be in the 4th, where the “forty-thieves” in dezabilie seduce the hussars, leaving them with sabers, but without silver spoons and other war trophies. In Part 2, Chopin's Funeral March is played from the world to the chord. In the 5th, under the sounds of Schubert’s hymn, a bodily and disembodied couple, immaculate as the conception of the Virgin Mary, easily ascends to the vaults of Chartres Cathedral, where they simultaneously perform several kulbits, embodying the youthful dream of the director himself. Well, it'll be in 6th! Deceptively long frames skillfully hide ingenious editing gluings, and still the delight of how, does not overlap the exhilaration before that. Your truth, Mr. Meyerhold: Mastery is when “what” and “how” come at the same time.
Each video series of the film represents the quintessence of the path of a person with his passions, attachments, values, achievements and mistakes. Shot in the style of video art, “Orchestra” reaches an ideological and staged climax and speaks the language of social art, bordering on the camp, in the last part called “Staircase to Lenin”. The hypnotic drawing of Ravel’s Bolero promotes a seemingly multiple replication of not only rhythmic but also human figures. Human clones, human robots, human files carry the disparate data of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, and external attributes blind the idolaters to the true essence of their gods. Hegemons alternate with the proletarians, mats hari in overcoats over half-dressed bodies and chekists in leathers - with walkers with kits, and all this heterogeneous brethren stubbornly climbs up - "where the mountain whitens behind the clouds, where the sea edges blue" - to the promised triumph of communism. The improvised red corner oozes with political symbols in the shades of the national flag of the once great and powerful: red swimsuits and ballet packs, stands, banners and orders, red ties and armbands flash as if at a May Day demonstration or parade. Picking up the creative relay of Ida Rubinstein and Maurice Bejard, his show Rybczynski subordinates the allegories of the fateful outcome of one state and saturates it with grotesque characters surrounded by unambiguously blazing scenery and a short-lived plaster pantheon. Starting with the funeral and the death of the story, ending it at the climax in unison with the last symphonic work of Ravel, the wise Pole turns the picture into a symbolic uroboros both in form and content. No matter how much rope you use, it will end. "We are guests in this mortal world." But what is the end? Beginning of the sequel.