Preparativi di fuga

Far-off bells, a brass band in a religious procession, the television or radio-the sound in Preparativi di fuga conjures up an escape into the distance, but which the image, either by its composition or its editing and its repetitions, are quick to belie. If escape belongs to an elusive off-screen dimension, enclosure is the major theme of this film without words, shot at Vibo Valentia in Calabria, in dominant blacks and whites, with a strong imprint of Buñuel and De Seta. Here, the roads lead nowhere. The differing speeds and the breaks in rhythm create worlds that never interact. Each is a prisoner of himself and there is no escape, just like the beetle stopped in its tracks by a hand, like the motorist incapable of getting out of his car, or the dog that wants to be a cat but which the cats are quick to rebuff. (Yann Lardeau)