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★
Directed by: #DianaGalimzyanova
Starring: #RashidAitouganov and #KolyaNeukoelln
So here is your mission should you decide to accept it; you have 13 minutes 14 seconds to extract some meaning from The Perfect Life of a Perfect Couple in a Perfect House: Season 42. There’s no script, subtitles or vaguest hint of a storyline; it has a score comprised of static interference and allegedly ‘reflects on a relationship facing distorted reality in the era of narcissism and disappearance of real intimacy’.
Diana Galimzyanova is an award-winning director and video artist based in Moscow, but I found this piece totally impenetrable. The characters exchange dialogue with each other and to camera but are buried under a deafening soundtrack. The ability to lip read in Russian may have given me a half chance but seriously doubt it.
We have a young, seemingly happy couple strolling through the ruins of a derelict building. Joy quickly turns to confusion and anger as they wrestle each other to the floor. VHS video tapes are methodically stacked on a shelf and subsequently thrown to the floor. Did these tapes record memories of a previously happy existence and now consigned to history? Presently, the mood changes with plastic smiles and touchy, feely happiness.
The soundtrack briefly switches to a squeaking wheel and muffled giggles with the couple in separate rooms. Boy then throws leaves over girl; swiftly followed by more grappling on steps. A brief chase ends with the couple struggling through the door of aforementioned derelict building; and then apparently the end.
All I got was a series of unrelated images that could mean everything and nothing at the same time backed by a migraine inducing soundtrack. Perhaps it was too subtle for me and consequently flew 100 miles over my head. Art can take many forms and no one can say what it should or shouldn’t be; but there has to be a coherent message in the piece. It felt more like Andy Warhol having a really bad day.
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