13’50” HD-Video, Projection wit sound
With site-specific performances during the festival Traverse Video Toulouse (France)
La Chute deals with the issue of identity. The film is loosely inspired on Albert Camus’ book of the same name, in which the main character judges and condemns his most pitiful desires and fears in order to come to a true image of who he really is.
In the film, one character jumps into the Garonne in Toulouse, leaving behind three body doubles. Maybe they are sisters, maybe close friends. Trying to cope with the sudden disappearance, the three characters get caught up in a conversation about who the fourth character actually was and who they are themselves. The conversation ends up in a heavy fight when they realize that their identities are much less stable than they would have hoped. This way, La Chute proposes to think of the self as a fluid identity, or even as a schizophrenic subjectivity.
About the series
The video series MÔWN looks into the narrative principles of film, investigating how sequences of seemingly unrelated images construct an imaginary fictional space and a credible narrative development. In this endeavor, MÔWN reduces film to its absolute minimum, requiring only one actress that embodies different characters while at the same time also serving as a director, a camera woman, a set designer, etc. This way, the series dissects the grammar of film, cutting away the non-essential elements of cinema (an army of actors and crew members, immense set designs, multimillion dollar budgets, a well-defined scenario). Instead, the video series leaves us with the most basic building stones of filmic illusion: a woman, her camera, montage, and a willing spectator.
The shooting of the movie scenes is also a public performance in which the audience is granted a look behind the scenes. During the site-specific performances, the audience sees how Ariane positions the camera and adjusts the lens, but also how she constantly changes costumes and hair styles to embody the different characters, using the tripod of her camera as a coat stand. This way, the performances show the process of making film with minimalistic means.