Screenings index

Ecce Momo!

dir. Anastas Charalampidis / Greece 2008 / 116’

subtitles: Polish and English

Panorama 12 Lotus, $9.99, Beeswax, Blue Beard, Breathless, Collectress, Ecce Momo!, Hooked, I am Not Your Friend + I Will Not Be Your Friend, Katalin Varga, Machan, My Only Sunshine, My Sweet Shirin, North, Nymph, Ordinary People, Palermo Shooting, Parque vía, Rachel Getting Married, Ricky, Schottentor, Seraphine, Stella, The Northern Land, The Other One, The Rat Herb, The Visitor, The White Ribbon, Two Lines, Under the Tree, Winter Silence Section index

Cast

Anastas Charalambidis

Film description

A stream of consciousness, a megalomaniac's story, the confession of an introvert. A discovery of this year's festival in Rotterdam. The two-hour film consists of: a hypnotising voiceover, trivial scenes from pubs and the underground in St. Petersburg and the soundtrack - a bizarre mixture of music styles from orthodox choirs to rock ballads. What is the most intriguing (or maybe irritating?) is the total disproportion between the work's dimensions, originating from spontaneous shooting and subsequent, equally freely improvised commentary. The main issues touched on in Ecce Momo! are: beautiful women, egotist vs. the world, the essence of time, sense of art and life, and hundreds of others. The director is inspired by the traditions of film by Jonas Mekas, Johan van der Keuken and the creator of Tarnation, Jonathan Caouette, references to James Joyce and Henry Miller are clearly visible, too. The spectators' reactions range from admiration to hatred. Some people walk out of the cinema during the screening, others applaud long after the end of the film. A film is a soul's screen - Ecce Momo! makes one think of this saying by Bergman. Film as cognition? Film as a conversation? A universal experience, for sure.