Defile in Veil.
2003 10m p/d/sc/ph/ed deco dawson, mus Patric Caird; with Deborah Axelrod.Started in 1998, and shot at intervals of one day a year for five years by Winnipeg filmmaker deco dawson (FILM (dzama), The Fever of the Western Nile) with contemporary dancer Deborah Axelrod, Defile in Veil is an oneiric, atmospheric portrait of one woman's search for purity and identity. Opening and closing with a double exposure of a young woman floating delicately against a backdrop of the sky, dawson's black-and-white marvel, drawing upon silent film era visual tricks and variable exposures, charts obscure processes of self-examination, dream and introspection as a woman reflects upon herself, her body and vague dangers of human existence. Axelrod's performance is more dance than acting and its fluid delivery meshes with dawson's lush use of multiple exposures, gauzy imagery, silhouettes and chiaroscuro. More a tone poem than a drama, Defile in Veil is nonetheless dramatic in its expression of the relationship between the interior and the exterior of its solitary protagonist. Beautiful and strangely haunting (its haunting quality enhanced by Patric Caird's elegiac musical score), Defile in Veil is a potent, evocative instance of cinematic poetry.
Tom McSorley, is the head of the Canadian Film Institute.
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| Title Annotation: | Short Takes |
|---|---|
| Author: | McSorley, Tom |
| Publication: | Take One |
| Date: | Sep 1, 2004 |
| Words: | 206 |
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