Hermetica— un film de Leyla Rodriguez /

Il n'y a pas de synopsis français pour ce film

The film Hermetica, completed in 2018, is the most recently concluded part of a series of six short films produced by Leyla Rodriguez between 2015 and 2018. The films are closely intertwined thematically, and also on a visual and musical level. They do not, however, have to be viewed in chronological order or even together in order for them to unfold their narrative potential.
Hermetica begins with a sequence (typical for Rodriguez’s films) that moves between melancholy, euphoria and aesthetic observations. Various shots of a helicopter and a flying pair of birds against the backdrop of a distant hazy townscape are shown while the artist’s aunt sings Wanderer’s Nightsong by J.W. v. Goethe, set to music by Franz Schubert, with an unsteady voice. The images are composed in such a way that we get the impression the birds and the helicopter are part of their own choreography, set in front of a bright blue sky. Apart from the singing there is no sound, so that the focus lies on the helicopter’s flight and the regular movements of its rotor blades. The expectation that we will hear the sound of a propeller getting louder is not met. As a result the movements of the helicopter, in their silence, develop an analogy to the dancing convergence and divergence of the birds.
The sequence pans to a vegetated elevation outside of the town atop which stands the artist, shrouded in a folkloric tablecloth, gazing at the departing helicopter that is now making a chopping sound. In this very brief take the film develops complex self-referential moments. The viewpoint of the observer is suggested, as are inferences about the origin of the preceding film footage, revealing many layers of illusion and of the production of images.
Initiated in an abrupt transition a barely noticeable time-lapse sequence of a trip through a green forest begins, revealing, seen slightly from below, a dense network of conifers reaching towards the sky. The choice of shot is reminiscent of depictions in the ‘frog perspective’ of the early 1920s. In this case, however, the focus is more on a romantic depiction of nature as a healing and intact place of refuge. This impression is further heightened by the use of powerful accompanying piano music played by the artist’s grandmother. During the middle section of the film there is a series of overlapping images of various animals and people in different spatial configurations. It is almost impossible here to focus on details, leading to the impression of a summary that reaches no conclusion but creates an infinite cycle in an affirmative gesture. Finally the forest is depicted again as a kind of framing entity, while Beethoven’s world-famous For Elise is performed on the piano.
While the music continues Hermetica ends in a sequence that shows a figure on the beach dressed in a pink hat, a dark, embroidered mask and a tight silver jacket over the shoulders and arms. The figure could be seen in brief insertions earlier in the film, depicted with a large inflatable globe, which she held above her head, mirroring the Atlas mythology. Now she sits alternately in front of and inside a hut made of bleached driftwood. The trunks have not been sawn into boards, but look like a continuation and aged version of the forest. Images of two oil paintings in a museum are superimposed at the same time. The one painting depicts a gnarled, overhanging tree, the other a small timber cottage in a mountainous landscape. In structure and composition the two pictures enter into a visual bond with the hut on the beach. But at the same time a discrepancy becomes clear, which determines the paintings in the museum as part of civic order, while the hut on the beach, its creation and use remain unanswered.
In the last take the figure finally lies down at the edge of the surf in a somewhat awkward fashion, as if she had completed something that occupied her for a long time. Rodriguez again picks up on the subjects of identity, family, flight and homelessness here, which in her view are closely connected, and refers to their parallel existence in a present-day context.

Tarif de location pour une projection : 30 €