Passage à l'acte (1993)

An avant-garde sonic and visual reediting of a short clip from the classic 1962 film "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Director:

Martin Arnold

Stars:

Phillip Alford, Mary Badham, Gregory Peck

Cast

Credited cast:
Phillip Alford	...	Jem Finch (archive footage)
Mary Badham	...	Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch (archive footage)
Gregory Peck	...	Atticus Finch (archive footage)

Storyline

Four people at the breakfast table, an American family, locked in the beat of the editing table. The short, pulsating sequence at the family table shows, in its original state, a classic, deceptive harmony. Arnold deconstructs this scenario of normality by destroying its original continuity. It catches on the tinny sounds and bizarre body movements of the subjects, which, in reaction, become snagged on the continuity. The message that lies deep under the surface of the family idyll, suppressed or lost, is exposed--that message is war.

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Plot Keywords:

avant garde | repetition | sound design | family relationships | found footage

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Genres:

Short

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Details

Country:

Austria

Language:

French English

Release Date:

5 October 1993 (USA)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

12 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Connections

Edited from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

User Reviews

Astonishingly weird

This little-seen (at least in the United States) experimental film is a truly astonishing experience. I saw it in a film class, the likely place most people will see it, and at first I wondered if I was dreaming or hallucinating. I looked around at the other students in the class to see if they had similarly bewildered reactions.

This short film appropriates a domestic scene from the classic film of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and plays around with it, like a hip-hop DJ manipulating a record on a turntable. A character begins to say something, and that brief second of footage repeats rapidly, so the character seems to twitch and stutter mechanically. The film continually halts and repeats infinitesimal instants.

Ignore whatever pretensions about "deconstruction" and the like the filmmakers have dressed "Passage" up in and, if you get the chance to watch it, just cherish how totally bizarre it is. I wish it was more readily available on video or DVD.