Keren Cytter
New York–based multidisciplinary artist Keren Cytter plays with the conventions of narrative cinema to reveal or upend their unwritten rules. Her pared-down style of filmmaking utilizes the barest of resources to create the atmosphere of film noir, horror movies, or soap operas and revel in their familiar storylines—the twists and turns of love, sex, jealousy, murder, and revenge. And yet, even as Cytter’s characters enact intense moments, the actors are often emotionally detached from the drama or are even playing multiple roles; scenes repeat themselves in no particular order.
TRANSCRIPT
[[music from film]]
- There is no decision in my movies.
- Then what is focused on is the way we perceive reality.
- We–I–perceive reality.
They are just following the most basic structures of drama.
[[audio from film]]
Female: Open the window, we need to fake it good.
Male: You look weird.
Female: What do you mean?
Male: You look sad.
[[end of audio from artwork]]
I’m sure you perceive it differently.
[[German]]
- I think people are just like most seriously
- obsessed about falling in love, competition with friends,
- what’s become of my life—kinds of questions.
The rest is just external.
- I have a very banal choice of dramas.
- It’s because I’m working more on the
- structure of the movie than on who is doing what
or what is the story.
[[audio from film]]
Your eyes are now free from your mind.
[[end of audio]]
I try to use the words like music.
[[audio from film]]
Female: Now shut up, don’t look where my hand is.
Male: Now here I confess, when she entered the room, now entered to fall.
Female: 1, 2, 3, 4
Male: Her moves were like dancing, and her words seemed like singing.
[[end of audio]]
- I care less about the content,
- less—I still care—but less,
- about the content of the words and more about
- when and how they are said and which words
that will sound like the most undisturbing ones.
I think I’m less an artist and more a language artist.
[[audio from film]]
Male 1: I can manage people well, I like to produce, and I love dancing.
I mean come on, give me a chance.
Male 2: I will, I will give you a chance.
[[end of audio]]
- The videos, there’s a lot of repetition in them,
- like image or text or movement or something like that,
- and this is a rhythmic idea that people,
even if they don’t get the story the minute
- some things are repeating themselves,
- they feel more familiar,
- and they agree to watch a bit more.
- So I thought to do the same thing with the space,
- and I think in the space,
- I hope they will get lost a bit,or lose orientation,
- or something like that,
and also maybe feel familiar with it and feel at home.
- The videos that actually reach what I want,
- that people will just enjoy them
- and won’t notice what’s going on
- or the plot but still would like the follow it,
because there is a sense of this story.
[[music from film]]