Dear Shaded Viewers,
You Wear it Well 2 films are arriving, we’re looking forward to yours.
Here are two submission from Erwin Olaf
. 
Erwin Olaf’s video Le Dernier Cri makes use of a kind of hyperrealism that
> is characteristic of much of his work. Here the slick realism of the
> Hollywood film is being driven to its limits, giving the whole work an
> absurd character. The camera moves in one long, continuous movement through
> a house; it almost seems to be floating. ‘Paris, printemps 2019’, reads a
> subtitle. The atmosphere in the house is suffocating – despite the
> spatiality and the fragile early-spring sounds that can momentarily be heard
> at the start. Everything is reminiscent of the ‘homely’ variation of
> modernism that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Everything is stylishly
> designed and decorated in tranquil grey-brown colours. There is no one to be
> seen, but the soft sounds penetrating from outside are soon drowned out by
> an ominous buzzing. Jacques Tati meets David Lynch. We hear the
> old-fashioned ding-dong of a doorbell. The vague contours of someone are
> visible behind the glass. A left foot in a white, high-heeled shoe
> dexterously turns off the domestic appliance that was the source of the
> buzzing, before joining the right and descending the open staircase. As yet
> there is no more of the housewife who is being carried by these feet to be
> seen than her lower body, from behind and the side. Then we see her head,
> from behind; her hands fleetingly touching her hair. After the bell rings
> for a second time, she rearranges a couple of flowers in a vase and then
> walks to the door. When the door opens, the face of a young woman with blond
> curly hair and peculiar protrusions and prostheses on her forehead, cheeks
> and mouth, appears (after this movement is flashed up three times with
> accompanying sound, to indicate that it is going to happen now). The woman,
> who is her aunt, compliments her in superlatives and exaggerated terms that
> are meant to describe the result of what she is seeing. The niece has
> clearly gone a step further in her exploits into plastic surgery than her
> aunt. She explains that this is now ‘quite the rage’. The two women exchange
> superficial courtesies and go inside, followed by the camera that watches
> them from above until they disappear into the kitchen. Their voices still
> seem to be audible in the distance while the camera stays behind in the
> large empty room, where everything is neatly in place.
Rouge has all the glamour of a moving photo shoot. A girl with milky-white
> skin, wearing a transparent negligee and a voluminous wig, enters a
> bright-red room through an opening in the rear wall. Dancing in slow steps
> and wooden movements, she shows her nearly naked body. Flickering lights are
> accompanied by a cold, dry beat. Soon the white dancer is joined by a figure
> whose muscular buttocks and legs in red knee socks and black patent leather
> stilettos attract our attention. He bounces a football with his legs spread
> apart, thereby changing the room into a games area. The voice of a
> commentator tells us they have begun their warming-up, and in the background
> is the sound of vague cheering. A third and a fourth actor, with painted or
> otherwise embellished faces, now appear. Their slender bodies, swathed only
> in black shorts, a corset or a skirt, prance in their high heels over the
> small field, sometimes jerkily and haltingly, at others aggressively and
> provocatively. At times, almost unnoticeably, this is played backwards. They
> are performing a football dance with each other and with the white girl who
> is guarding a imaginary goal. Images of the game alternate with visions of
> the dancer being smeared with blood in a sensual way. The voice of the
> commentator, which seems to be coming from the mouths of the players,
> discusses in a couple of sentences the present conditions in football. The
> match ends with the goalkeeper being splattered in blood, at which in a dry
> voice and with lips synchronized she utters a few more words on the decline
> of the game.
August 15th is the deadline for submissions for You Wear it Well 2.
Later,
Diane
