Dead Time

A film that is very striking in two ways. Firstly, Sanguedolce has applied his great experience with hand-colouring and the development of experimental films in a full-length feature. Secondly, the dramatic life story of the two sisters, Wendy and Julie, is told with the level of detail of a documentary biography. The film maker has often focused on processing home movies and in this film, this has a clear influence on the form of the drama. The sisters drag themselves from a childhood filled with sexual abuse to violent relationships with dealers, who have no redeeming features elsewhere either. They surrender themselves completely to excessive drug use. They float permanently between self-destruction and self-medication. Seldom have the lives of losers and users being portrayed so effectively, in a way that visualises their sad hallucinations without any comment. The images briefly seem to be under the same influence of psychedelic chemicals as the characters who populate them. In this way, the film effectively bridges the gap between the experimental drugs film and more narrative narco-cinema. In his experimental and craftsman-like way of treating the film material, Sanguedolce is related to his compatriot John Price, also represented in this programme with a series of short films. (GjZ)

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