| Mark Webber – programme notes, The 48th Times BFI London Film Festival, National Film Theatre, Oct. 30-31, 2004) |
The film is set in Granada, an extraordinary location where east mest west. It opens with footage of the Alhambra and its surroundings, detailing the extraordinary Moorish architecture and intricate decoration, the pulsing water of its fountains and the activities of the local people. The ancient citadel, at first serene and regal, is overrun by the transparent bodies of tourists, while the ''videoterrorifico mirror'' of television reflects the frenzy of modern media.
These ''variations on an intuited cinegraphy'' have been assembled entirely from material shot by Val del Omar between 1968-82. The newly commissioned atmospheric score is punctuated by his poetic declarations which invite comparison with both Federico García Lorca and Sun Ra.
Val del Omar envisaged a ''cinematic vibration'' that would be the vertex of his life’s work, being a development and elaboration of the ''Elementary Triptych'' in which he first presented his radical cinematic visions. The passage of images, which ranges from documentary to complete abstraction, is exquisitely photographed in lush colours and tonal monochromes. Delirious visual sequences mark the passage from the earthly world to a transcendental plane. The film is a meta-mystical allegory of life, death and rebirth led by the elementary forces of the universe, seeking unity between the spiritual realm, the ancient world and contemporary life, where images and thoughts flow free of time.
^ | | | Mark Webber – The 48th Times BFI London Film Festival (2004) |
| Sandra Hebron – Artistic Director, The 48th Times BFI London Film Festival |
| Demetrios Matheou : ''The most beautiful images in the world'' |
| Ian Johns – The Times (2004) |
| G. E. – Time Out (2004) |
| George Clark – Senses of Cinema |
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