So I've left Rotterdam now and have a bunch of Sweden stuff to report still but I wanted to talk briefly about my most intense cinematic experience in Rotterdam, seeing CASTING A GLANCE, James Benning's portrait of the Spiral Jetty.
The film is a series of scenes Benning shot at this incredible "earth sculpture" beginning in 1970 and continuing up until just a few months ago. It's an amazing use of film's ability to compress time, as the sculpture undergoes incredible transformations over the years. The sculpture seems to rise up with giant salt beaches on either side, in the mid 90s there is a point in the life of the jetty in which it is completely underwater for years. Eventually a few years later the jetty beings to slowly and surely reemerge, Finally the jetty exists in one of its most triumphant forms, a seeming floating strip of rocks hovering in the mirrored sky of the lake. It was an incredible film experience, and the fact that grass is legal in Rotterdam enhanced the film for much of the audience I'm sure.
It's an insanely good movie experience and I've drove Susan nuts by refusing to discuss anything not jetty related for 12 hours after we saw the movie. Sadly, when I got back to the computer the next day I saw this news story about the Jetty being endangered! So sad, I hope everything turns out alright fr it. This sculpture and this film are triumphant successes for all of humanity.
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