GYMNOPEDIES
LAWRENCE JORDAN • 5m 40s
Animation. The theme is weightlessness. Objects and characters are cut loose from habitual meanings as well as tensions and gravitational limitations. A lyric Erik Satie track accompanies the film. Such a portrait seems necessary from time to time to remind us that equilibrium and harmony are possible and that we will not dissolve into a jelly if we allow ourselves to relax into them: a horseman rides through the landscape, through the town, but never arrives anywhere in particular. An acrobat swings on a rope above a canal in Venice and is content just to swing there. Nothing threatens to disturb them. This film is a total contrast to the Kafka-like oddities of Eastern European animation.
"It is impossible not to hallucinate on your own while watching it." - Lita Eliseu, East Village Other
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