Eva is a noisey person for the advertising industry. While replacing her sister in hospital, she takes over her work to create an advertising spot to fight depression through equitherapy. Introverted, Eva invests body and soul until a real horsetail grows on her coccyx, opening up new sexual horizons with a botanist who does not like that ferns. Ofni of the fantastic festival of Gérardmer,Piaffecheck all the boxes of an arty object sometimes starts to curl up LGBTQ+ window cartoons by its big hoofs. We've been analyzing the beast in video since the Vosges.
Our criticism ofPiaffe
PIaffeis the first feature film of a filmmaker before any plasticist. Experimental from end to end, it must be recognized a certain stamp out of time with its format 1:66, shot in Super 16, its silver patina and its pop colors that capture the retina not without recalling the first films inTechnicolor. The camera is laid down and only packs up when Eva loses the strangler, caught up in a psychologically exhausting work. We feel from the beginning the passage of Ann Oren to Fine Arts as Berlin influence for the (very successful) scenes of clubsunderground. Elegant, photography knows how to set its atmosphere by highlighting the performance ofSimone Bucio, which will not hesitate to put on the walruses to mimic the metal henness distorted by the pressure impulsed by the rider.
Unfortunately, past the visual surprise, the film sítiole by applying perhaps too mechanically contemporary societal themes on this exercise of cold and austere style. The metaphor of this technique of dressing, which is called in jargon the «Piaffe», becomes quasi-school, pretext for a discourse on non-binary sexuality and personal emancipation. This movement of the piaffe would be one of the most complex of the dressage, in the sense that the rider must lead his mount to act to the maximum of independence in order to achieve a result, natural, casual and harmonious. It is one of the figures that paradoxically combines the illusion of a locked-in look with perfect inertia.
Relationship of confidence between the two partners, the technique of the piaffe will be spun out and decalated with the anonymous and sudden relationship of Eva with a botanist. The latter is customary in another form of dressing since it ligates buds to better orient their curves. It is quite naturally that he gives himself to libertin passions of the same order. In terms of dialogue,Piaffeprefers to communicate through bodies. Between larval eroticism, fetishism and bondage,Ann Orendecalates all the attributes of a long-deviant sexuality and today (re)affirmed by the plurality of bodies, genders and identities of all kinds.
These supposed « Deviations » find echoes through the scene of the X-ray, prelude to the acceptance of Eva and victory of the self over the eyes of others. It is also the revenge of another possible on monochrome images conveyed by the advertising world which, by definition, crushes the individual and condemns the difference. So far, why not, but the film falls too easily into cheap metaphors that one guesses at sight.
From the botanist's cliché discourse on the mode of reproduction (of course not binary) of ferns to the languorous bondage, it is another representation of sexuality which shows all the trendsslow sexand co of our time, so fond of profile labelscorporateNoted. The promotion of lack of penetration (honished by any good psycho article ofMaia Mazaurette) with dediabolized urine, it has sometimes been felt to have the perfect reflection of a reversed caricature of representations of a stunted patriarchate. I'm not talking about the scenes denouncing themansplainingneither the free figure of the transgender and exuberant sister. By seeking transgression at all costs,PiaffeDoes it not end up reinforcing a too agreed specification? Anticonformism became conformism in the era of postmodernity? The film even ticks the box "cigarette burn" to anchor permanentlyPiaffein the inde section of the second part of the evening of Arte.
Combined with a repeat construction,PiaffeThe spectator too quickly grills the big cartridges of a film that has little narrative ambition and probably relies too much on its plastic. It's a shame because this film had attributes to argue, especially on the otherwise more successful parallel between dance and self-fulfillment. What's better than a Berlin club to claim a cosmopolitan horizon where the bodies are no longer defined by civil identities but by the desire to be oneself or another, the space of a night or a life?
We will also welcome the remarkable performance of Simone Bucio who will perform a variant of the piaffe in this acidic tekno environment. Despite these few formal fulgurations, the militant anchor became autonomous mechanical ready to smile so much thatPiaffeMissing the check. With its unique sensitivity, the film remains a curiosity that will be reserved for the most seasoned fans of ASMR. If it was much more difficult to find qualities toThe Mountain (2022)with whomPiaffesharing the jury's prize, one understands much more the latter's choice on this first film author who, failing to succeed his gallop, remains an adventurous essay by a director who seeks her way through experimentation.
Ann Oren signs his first feature film withPiaffe
Born in Tel Aviv, she studied cinema and fine arts at the New York School of Visual Arts. His works are exhibited in many institutions, including the Tel Aviv Museum, the New York Anthology Film Archives and the KINDL Contemporary Art Centre in Berlin. It was only in 2015 that she turned to cinema that she directed several short films, includingPassage(2020) who receives the Grand Prize from the jury of the Slamdance Festival.Piaffeis his first feature film awarded by Gérardmer's jury.
Trailer ofPiaffe
I usually like these pitch movies completely scratched :-p
He deserves a look anyway. 😉