Video

In the City

Mike Hoolboom

2004, 09:40 minutes, b&w, English

TAPECODE 566.98

In the City utilizes layers of superimposition while a man we don’t see narrates a series of break ups in 26 alphabetically arranged restaurants.” Esma Moukhtar, Montevideo Catalogue

In the City shows how our surroundings absorb us in its discourses and in its definition of us inside itself.” Petra Vesela

In the City recalls early Peter Greenaway in its ironic storytelling wherein a male voice (Steve Reinke) describes his breakups with each of his boyfriends, paired to a gorgeous montage of restaurants and city scenes.” Robert Koehler, Variety

In the City intersperses a series of narrated break-up stories between layers of black-and-white found footage from the 1950s and shots of restaurant exteriors.” Diane Burgess, Vancouver International Festival

“The first, a gay man, takes us on a tour of the bars and restaurants where his affairs have ended, recounting ironic stories of his many lovers.” Mark Webber, London Film Festival

“In the City is composed of primarily black and white shots of familiar streets, city sidewalks, and neighborhood haunts as a male voice recounts his memories of the moments of breakup with lovers and friends, and nostalgic, often embarrassing episodes of missed connection. Images of transience are presented in altered time - trains traversing railroad tracks, swimmers in a pool, automobiles alternately driving by in slow motion and
Koyaanisqatsi hyperkinetics - drifting through a Wong Kar-wai-like warped space-time continuum that reveals the underlying atemporality of rejection, longing, and regret.” Acquarello, Nov. 28, 2005. Check him out: http://filmref.com/siteinfo.html

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