"THE GREATER CIRCULATION"
A Film by Antero Alli (2005; 93 min. USA)
Based on poet Rainer Maria Rilke's "Requiem For a Friend"
(as translated from the German by Stephen Mitchell)
Wednesday June 27th, 7:30pm
Humanist Hall, 390 27th St (near Broadway) Oakland
$10. admission. Filmmaker in person.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
I have been living with poet Rainer Maria Rilke's epic lament,"REQUIEM FOR A FRIEND," on and off since 1990 when I first staged it as a narrative for a performance ritual in Seattle. Fourteen years later, I wrote a screenplay incorporating the entire text of "Requiem" within a story about Rilke writing it over three fever-dream nights in a Paris hotel room and how one hundred years later, three women prepare to perform it as avante garde experimental theatre. In the completed film, "The Greater Circulation," the final twenty minutes features the live performance by these women incorporating 'paratheatre' techniques and processes.
Rilke wrote "Requiem" as a tribute to his close friend, the artist Paula Modersohn-Becker, who unexpectedly died eighteen days after birthing her first child. “The Greater Circulation” is a cinematic treatment of Rilke’s prose addressing the central drama of all women torn between sacrificing their lives to their Art or to Motherhood. "The Greater Circulation"
celebrates the visual and theatrical expression of Rilke's epic lament and can be especially appreciated by those familiar with his prose and poetry.
- Antero Alli, director
watch an brief dream sequence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
"Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Requiem for a Friend” is the foundation for this marvelous production of mature emotion and deep wisdom; few films have been able to explore the issues surrounding death with such grace and intelligence." Phil Hall, filmthreat.com (5 stars out of five)
http://www.filmthreat.com/
the movie site (credits, stills, reviews)
http://www.verticalpool.com/
"Requiem for a Friend" (the entire text; Stephen Mitchell, translator)
http://www.paratheatrical.com/
