Red City is an attempt to visualize poetry. From very early on in the pre-production stages, the script of the film was inspired by the latest poems of Maria Tataraki. Soon afterwards, Dinos Christianopoulos’ poetry, as well, became a cornerstone of the film. Maria Tataraki’s prose were incorporated in the script, comprising its two main monologues. Many of the film’s scenes were inspired directly by the imagery of the poems; the two poets act as a dipole that propagates the atmosphere of the film. Both are very modern, but Tataraki is more lyrical and feminine, whereas Christianopoulos is more chaste and masculine. Combined, they set the underlying tone for the film’s photography and aesthetics. Without the poetry, Red City would have been a wayward ship.
As old as human history and as powerful as the instinct of survival, is the will of authority to touch human beings and transform them into slaves. The mind is darkened at such moments, and the function of memory ceases. Those who were thinkers once, those who - due to an eccentric youth - used to be rebels, become mercenaries. The Prince’s fellow diners. They undertake the task of presenting as rightful what can only be traced back in ritual space. And they set their mighty confidence at the service of a suspicious World Order. They are the literate mandarins of the system, the messengers of the Private. Interlocutors of the Prince, they are the ‘doyens’, the firm ‘professors’ who owe to proclaim loudly that war shall prevail.
|
