At the start of the film there are fixed shots of static images in succession, each lasting around ten seconds: a stone, a chair, a dog, a person and so on. Little by little, the shots develop and become more complex. As though in logical development, the shots begin to combine the previous takes: stone + dog, man + dog etc. The separation into episodes is announced by titles. Here again, Baldessari multiplies references. Passing from black-and-white to colour, from text to image, from the quasi “photographic” shot to movement, from mute sequences to sequences with sound, the artist progresses and creates a decomposition of the structural elements of cinema resulting in more narrative shots, such as an eavesdropping woman, or clichés from Hollywood cinema such as the man standing on the beach at sunset. The ending deconstructs the relationship between sound, image and text. A subtitle explains a mute image, a man speaks and laughs soundlessly, or a picture appears out of sync with the soundtrack, like the stone with rock music as background sound. The structure dominates the narrative, creating a film that is the opposite of the commercial model, with a disjointed narrative, interrogating the conventions and codes of words and images in cinema.

Patricia Maincent

Translated by Anna Knight