Nothing seems more abrasive in cinema than lo-fi maximalism, that unapologetic assault by which a film with comparatively limited resources operates beyond and against established aesthetic principles. Rapid-fire editing, percussive rhythms, irony relayed through the reappropriation of mainstream techniques: think of The Battle of Algiers (1966), think of Guy Maddin.
Think also of Cuban-born Nicolás Guillén Landrián (1938-2003), whose short films seem to embody the properties of guerrilla warfare itself—or more precisely, the guerrilla warfare by which Batista’s Cuban dictatorship was overthrown in the 1950s. The six Guillén Landrián shorts programmed by the Viennale this year, all made between 1964 and 1968, were conditioned by and actively responded to the multiple contradictions that characterised working life in Cuba in the decade following its revolution.
Just as history itself progresses in staggered leaps and stuttered bounds, Guillén Landrián’s work continuously and indefatigably frustrates all sense of aesthetic or narrative harmony. It is aggressive.
Think also of Cuban-born Nicolás Guillén Landrián (1938-2003), whose short films seem to embody the properties of guerrilla warfare itself—or more precisely, the guerrilla warfare by which Batista’s Cuban dictatorship was overthrown in the 1950s. The six Guillén Landrián shorts programmed by the Viennale this year, all made between 1964 and 1968, were conditioned by and actively responded to the multiple contradictions that characterised working life in Cuba in the decade following its revolution.
Just as history itself progresses in staggered leaps and stuttered bounds, Guillén Landrián’s work continuously and indefatigably frustrates all sense of aesthetic or narrative harmony. It is aggressive.
- 11/1/2013
- by Michael Pattison
- MUBI
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