Retratos fantasmas
An inflationary treatment of the image through a fast editing produces the feeling of an image coalescence that equally presents to us something akin to an invisible memory. With Retratos fantasmas, Kleber Mendonça Filho is revealed to be a subtle master in the use of archive footage because he is not celebrating it but rather the “thing” that the archive footage could convey. Moreover, this image coalescence superposes on the coalescence of cinema, house and church as the one-in-three place for theatre and imagination. Retratos fantasmas is not only a film on both invisible memory and the power of imagination – and their connection – but also a rare film on the meaning of the Holy Spirit, of which cinema can be an architectural and experiential emanation.
Kleber Mendonça Filho | BRA 2023 | 93’ | Viennale 2023, Visions du Réel Nyon 2024
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Screenings at Visions du Réel Nyon 2024
Text: Giuseppe Di Salvatore