 |
DVD Exhibition
 Run time: 104 min Rating: 5.5 Genres: Drama Director: Joanna Hogg Writers: Joanna Hogg, Joanna Hogg Stars: Viviane Albertine, Liam Gillick, Tom Hiddleston |
| Storyline An intimate examination of a contemporary artist couple, whose living and working patterns are threatened by the imminent sale of their home. |
|
| Details: Country: UK Release Date: 25 April 2014 (UK) |
|
DVD Exhibition
previous post
3 comments
Spoiler Alert:
This films is absolute sh*t.
It's a real case of the emperors new clothes. Having worked in the film and TV industry for 22 years I know a lot of technician and actors. and I know a lot of technicians and actors who have worked with The Director Joanna Hogg. They all laugh as she is considered to be truly appalling as a director, she doesn't plan, isn't inventive, doesn't block actors well, or give good direction, she has no originality and everything she has was created by someone else and has absolutely no understanding or lighting, camera or editing, an absolute nightmare.
Please Joanna, tell me what it is you bring to the set?
But apparently this is OK according to the critics who for some reason applaud her minimalist ability.
Very much in the same way that a child might scrawl some green crayon on a canvass, and then an art gallery owner might decide to hand the scribble in his gallery so to do the critics laud this scribble.
As a technician I can see actors looking for marks, stumbling over each others lines, whilst clearly improvising lines that don't quite make sense. I see poor framing and bad lighting, I see the camera work is tedious, the editing perfunctory, in my head I keep saying, "Cut, cut, cut, please for the love of God cut." and it still won't cut.
The script is woeful in it's sheer lack of content, I swear that if it was written out it'd be about 50 pages.
Archipelago was truly insulting to film makers and crew, and this is worse.
Please Joanna stop, just stop, you have no talent and no vision, you are a waste of digital resources when we could be watching something else like best of face palm on you-tube.
You have been warned. This film is sh*t.
The term 'Art Film' can sometimes mean an interesting, unique experience full of symbolic possibility, or it can be a code word for pretentious bore-fest! Exhibition easily falls in the latter.
D (Viv Albertine) and H (Liam Gillick) are a married couple who live in what Al Pacino from 'Heat' would describe as a 'Bullshit postmodern apartment!' They are both artists and have their own studio in separate rooms. They communicate to each other by using the speaker phone, and there is a spiral staircase which unites the house. We see D sitting around in her room moving a stool around and sitting on it, putting together some kind of conceptual art performance which symbolises something. There is a shot of her lying on a rock or opening cupboard doors and other random, pedestrian activities which I don't care about. There seems to be tension between the couple. D does not like to talk to H about her art because he might be honest to the point of insensitive. H tries to occasionally assert his manhood by trying to have sex with her but she resists. More scenes of them sitting around talking about stuff and waffle about the house being a living and breathing entity which harbours good vibrations within the walls. They have to sell the house for some reason, but D wants to stay and blah blah blah!
I found it so tedious and so monotonous, I started looking away from the screen as I did not care what was going on at all. Both characters were unlikable, un-relatable and a couple of hollow, ostentatious snobs making the kind of art which is disposable and meaningless. With all these glowing reviews stating how enigmatic and sensual it was, I had no feelings of any kind of enigma or sensuality whatsoever. Was I missing something? Clearly I am the wrong target audience here who has no care for understanding whatever the point of this film was. I am sure it's not that important…. to non pretentious people anyway!
English screenwriter and director Joanna Hogg's third feature film which she wrote, is inspired by the house and works of a 20th and 21st century architect named James Melvin (1912-2011). It premiered in the international competition section at the 66th Locarno International Film Festival in 2013, was screened in the Dare Gala section at the 57th London Film Festival in 2013, was shot on location in England and is a UK production which was produced by producer Gayle Griffiths. It tells the story about a performance artist named D and an artist named H.
Distinctly and precisely directed by English filmmaker Joanna Hogg, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the protagonist's point of view, draws a dense portrayal of an artist couple's relationship and how it is affected after they decide to sell their house. While notable for its naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, distinct cinematography by cinematographer Ed Rutherford, production design by production designer Stéphane Collonge, film editing by film editor Helle Le Fevre and use of sound, colors and light, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about a lifestyle, the human condition, self-expression and regaining trust and chemistry, depicts an authentically humane and internal study of character.
This reflectively observational, somewhat humorous and retrospectively graceful character piece and exercise in cinema which is set in London, England in the 21st century and where a person is adapting to an upcoming transition and reconnecting with another person, is impelled and reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure, subtle character development and continuity, distinct dialog, the diverse and informal acting performance by Australian-English singer, songwriter and television director Viv Albertine and the reverent acting performance by English installation and conceptual artist Liam Gillick. A densely mysterious, cinematographically accomplished and unwaveringly concentrated work of art.