Patrick Keiller leads viewers down a poetic path of words and imagery in ROBINSON IN RUINS
ROBINSON IN RUINS (Patrick Keiller, 2010)
Alice Tully Hall
1941 Broadway at 65th St.
Sunday, September 26, 12 noon
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
British filmmaker Patrick Keiller’s follow-up to 1994’s LONDON and 1997’s ROBINSON IN SPACE is another staggering achievement, a gorgeous pairing of word and image resulting in something fresh, challenging, and unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. The conceit behind ROBINSON IN RUINS is that it consists of found footage taken by a man named Robinson, with text from his rather eclectic notebook; in fact, every shot is carefully planned by writer, director, and editor Keiller, with the narrative added later, intoned by Vanessa Redgrave. The camera barely moves throughout the film’s one hundred and one minutes; instead, it remains still as it depicts a construction site, rapeseed fields, nuclear power plants, a mail slot, and a street corner, the only signs of movement the wind blowing through the trees, a passing car, or industrial smoke. People are virtually nonexistent as Redgrave reads Robinson’s complex treatise on agriculture, architecture, the economic crisis, history, politics, and opium, all centered around, as Keiller said at the film’s press preview, “the problem of dwelling.” ROBINSON IN RUINS is like a tour through a thrilling art exhibition, each piece beautifully composed, coupled with fiercely intellectual poetry that is wonderful to listen to, even if much of it is impossible to understand. The New York Film Festival screening on September 26 will be preceded by Alan Berliner’s short film TRANSLATING EDWIN HONIG: A POET’S ALZHEIMER’S (2010).