{"id":1231,"date":"2004-10-31T19:00:28","date_gmt":"2004-10-31T19:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/?p=1231"},"modified":"2018-01-25T14:58:25","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T14:58:25","slug":"throw-your-watch-to-the-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/2004\/10\/31\/throw-your-watch-to-the-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Throw Your Watch to the Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

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THROW YOUR WATCH TO THE WATER
\n<\/b>Sunday 31 October 2004, at 7pm
\n<\/b>London National Film Theatre NFT3<\/b><\/p>\n

Eugeni Bonet, Tira Tu Reloj al Agua (Throw Your Watch to the Water), Spain, 2004, 91 min
\n<\/b>Jos\u00e9 Val del Omar (1904-82), one of the pioneers of European avant-garde film, remains virtually unknown outside of Spain. His visionary Triptico Elemental de Espa\u00f1a <\/i>(1953-61) embodies the soul, landscape and diverse cultural mix of his Andalucian homeland, connecting life on our planet with the elementary forces of the universe. Using material shot by the film-maker between 1968-82, Eugeni Bonet has assembled Throw Your Watch to the Water<\/i>, whose images, ranging from documentary to complete abstraction, mark the passage from the earthly world to a transcendental plane. The film opens in the Alhambra, detailing the intricate Moorish architecture, pulsing fountains and activities of the local people. The ancient citadel, at first serene and regal, is overrun by the transparent bodies of tourists, whilst the \u2018videoterrorifico mirror\u2019 of television reflects the frenzy of modern media. Val del Omar envisaged a \u2018cinematic vibration\u2019 that would be the vertex of his life\u2019s work, and this film, in which images and thoughts flow free of time, is a meta-mystical allegory that seeks a unity between the spiritual realm, the ancient world and contemporary life.<\/p>\n

Also Screening: Saturday 30 October 2004, at 8:30pm, London ICA2<\/i><\/p>\nPROGRAMME NOTES<\/a>

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THROW YOUR WATCH TO THE WATER
\n<\/b>Sunday 31 October 2004, at 7pm
\nLondon National Film Theatre NFT3<\/p>\n

TIRA TU RELOJ AL AGUA (THROW YOUR WATCH TO THE WATER)
\nEugeni Bonet, Spain, 2004, 35mm, colour, sound, 91 min<\/b><\/p>\n

Despite a circle of admirers that includes the directors Chris Marker and Victor Erice, Jos\u00e9 Val del Omar (1904-1982), one of the pioneers of European avant-garde film, remains virtually unknown. In pursuing his dream for a cinema for all the senses he made numerous technical innovations and discoveries, and patented designs for cinematic surround sound, wide-screen projection and special lenses years before they became commonplace.<\/p>\n

His career began in the 1920s with dozens of ethnographic films made for the Misiones Pedag\u00f3gicas. Focusing on the impoverished regions of Spain, the surviving examples are reminiscent of the stark, early documentaries of Luis Bu\u00f1uel.<\/p>\n

Throughout the 1950s he worked on the Triptico Elemental de Espa\u00f1a<\/i>, consisting of three short 35mm films that each characterised one of the elements: water (Aguaespejo granadino<\/i>, 1953-55), fire (Fuego en Castilla<\/i>, 1958-60) and earth (Acari\u00f1o galaico<\/i>, 1961). Val del Omar was fundamentally connected to the soul, landscape and culture of his Andalucian homeland, and these films embody its diverse cultural history, referencing Christian and Islamic beliefs, and the connections between life on our planet and the universal whole. There are some similarities with the trance films of Anger, Brahage, Deren and Markopoulos, though Val del Omar\u2019s methods are overtly mystical and cosmic. Throw Your Watch to the Water<\/i> has been assembled by Eugeni Bonet, working with the Archivo Mar\u00eda Jos\u00e9 Val del Omar and Gonzalo S\u00e1enz de Buruaga, to realise a work that occupied the film-maker for decades up until his sudden death in a car accident.<\/p>\n

The film is set in Granada, an extraordinary location where east meets 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, shown at first serene and regal, is later overrun by the transparent bodies of tourists, while the \u2018videoterrorifico mirror\u2019 of television reflects the frenzy of modern media.<\/p>\n

These \u2018variations on an intuited cinegraphy\u2019 have been created 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 Garc\u00eda Lorca and Sun Ra.<\/p>\n

Val del Omar envisaged a \u201ccinematic vibration\u201d that would be the vertex of his life\u2019s work, a development and elaboration of the \u2018Elementary Triptych\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

(Mark Webber)<\/p>\n

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Alina Rudnitskaya\u2019s humanistic approach to documentary filmmaking often brings out the humour in her chosen subjects. As an introduction to her work, this programme depicts three diverse groups of contemporary Russian women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-london-film-festival-2004","tag-london-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwebber.org.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}