Return to the Scene of the Crime

  • 93'
  • USA
  • 2008
Jacobs's return to a single scene from the 1905 short Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son - which he first disassembled in his 1969 masterpiece of the same name - could easily be titled 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Scene.' An avant-gardist's comedy, Return roguishly riffs on thirteen distinct styles, revealing, distorting, interpreting, and even misinterpreting the hundreds of actions in a single scene - as painting, abstraction, allegory, and, ultimately, as ballet. It's a wry, roving, and joyous ode to movies, an experimental Enfants du paradis.
Even more than with Anaglyph Tom, this is archeological excavation from a very contemporary point of view. Just as the structural cinema from the late sixites could be read as a countermovement to mainstream cinema, Jacobs goes against the grain of America’s grand narrative and inserts political comments, such as the final confession of Alan Greenspan. Far from pure formalist obsessiveness, Jacobs's radically unconventional visual essays are testimony of a radical, untamed spirit that is unrelentless in its quest for a pure, first degree visual experience. (www.theauteurs.com)
Director
Ken Jacobs
Country of production
USA
Year
2008
Festival Edition
IFFR 2009
Length
93'
Medium
Betacam Digi PAL
Language
English
Producer
Ken Jacobs
Sales
Ken Jacobs
Editor
Ken Jacobs
Music
Malcolm Goldstein
Director
Ken Jacobs
Country of production
USA
Year
2008
Festival Edition
IFFR 2009
Length
93'
Medium
Betacam Digi PAL
Language
English
Producer
Ken Jacobs
Sales
Ken Jacobs
Editor
Ken Jacobs
Music
Malcolm Goldstein