James N. Kienitz Wilkins
United States | 2023 | 72 min
International Premiere
Language : English
Subtitle : French
In the form of a fictitious legal deposition, James N. Kienitz Wilkins explores the last forty years of cinema using images taken from Hollywood film press kits. This obsessive and joyful film flits between memories, conspiracy theories and technological obsolescence, like a meditative contemplation on contemporary cinema and truth itself.
Using a carousel of 140 35mm images meticulously collected from Hollywood film press kits and freely combined, New York filmmaker James N. Kienitz Wilkins surveys forty years of cinema - a period corresponding to his age - while a fictitious legal deposition serves as commentary. Two lawyers and a witness contemplate and question the latter’s memories (both real and fantasised); actors and scenes associated with moments in life; cinematic experiences and other conspiracy theories; but also technological obsolescence. These multi-generational characters - including a recording engineer who serves to further confuse the convoluted dialogue - are embodied in the off-screen voice of the filmmaker. His deep voice and impressive, intense delivery are immediately recognisable - recall the excellent Indefinite Pitch (2016) - producing an effect that is obsessive, joyful and often amusing, like a meditative, cinephilic trance on contemporary cinema and the powers of falsehood.
Emilie Bujès
The Plagiarists, 2019
