So, apparently when the end of Lykke's tour left her feeling depressed and frustrated, Moses Berkson and herself headed for the desert armed with a super 8 camera and many many mirrors.
First of all, Lykke Li is easily considered in my head as a bit of a genius and an effortless one at that. And that effortless, underground, floatyness she so beautifully airs odes very well to a surrealist short film. I say surrealist, although I should be very careful how I use that word in 2010. The reason I say surrealist is that the second the film began I felt like I'd been thrown back to the 1920's and that if I was very lucky I might be sat next to Marcel Duchamp or Salvador Dali. So, has Moses Berkson purposely paid homage to avant-garde surrealist cinema here or was it just coincidence?
I should probably attempt to dissect the piece a little first, although, joyously, there are no wrong answers in surrealism (good times!) So, we begin in a desert with shards of mirrors sticking out of the sand and Lykke is in a number of scenarios, including struggling to hold up a door, light shining into her blindfolded eyes and throwing sand over a mirror with a spade. For me, I'd guess that these actions are a way to represent her frustration and lack of confidence in the industry she works in. As we know, she went to the desert as a way to deal with her end of tour depression and the burying of a mirror for example is a beautiful metaphor for the demotivation one must encounter along with fame. Also the very fact that throughout undergoing these painful looking actions she is in the fierce heat of the sun suggests that this physical exposure is an expression of how she feels emotionally being in the lime light. As she shines the reflection of the sun into the camera lens the audience are dazzled in a way that, for me, was Lykke saying "this is what is feels like".
Anyhow, when will this rant end I hear you cry!.....Not yet I'm afraid, because the pace and music are most important! The pace picks up speed and the eerie metallic sounds we hear start to pick up too, until the music becomes quite tribal. It's almost as if there is some kind of tribal ritual about to commence, which is also suggested when at the very end Lykke holds her arm up in a kind of Pocahontas salute. Is this a slight hint at expressing conformity and regiment in the music industry? Hmmm....I'd like to think so.
Ok, back to avant-garde. Maybe it's because Berkson's shot Solarium in black and white super 8 with lots of simple wide or close-up shots sneaking in a few cheeky handheld moments that makes me think of 1920's, Dadaism and all that. Or maybe its the odd cuts to close-ups of an ant that takes me back to Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali's Un Chien Andalou (I say 'takes me back' like I was actually alive on it's release....I wasn't) But what really drew me to definitively conclude that Solarium is a surrealist throwback is that it shares so many qualities, themes (if I got them right!) and styles with Maya Deren's Meshes Of The Afternoon. I'd have to say that I definitely prefer Maya Deren's to Solarium but that's just because she has the most incredible ability to build tension as an aid to express femininity. Quite honestly, Meshes Of The Afternoon scared me the first time I saw it! And, of course, Maya Deren was and still is, for me a great pioneer for women film makers and artists. So, please have a little watch!.....
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