Emtigon | Irish Artist's Film Index

Emtigon

Joe Comerford


Artist's biography

Joe Comerford

Synopsis

'Joe Comerford’s first film, involves a process of combining 'elements of narrative with abstraction' that informs all of his other work. A pitch-black Beckett-like vaudeville of impotence and aggression, Emtigon tragicomically details a homeless old man’s covert intrusion on a young woman social worker. Claustrophobic framing and cutting refuses the viewer an easy interpretation or even a comfortable point of view but the abstractions hint and nudge at possible meanings. An associational montage of images from World War I suggests a collective memory that might somehow underlie the protagonist’s behavior. The final image of a stolen house-key dropped into dark canal waters is emblematic of this filmmaker’s opaque, poetic narratives.' (Notes by Eugene Finn, sourced from http://www.ifi.ie/wp-content/uploads/Joe-Comerford-Painting-a-Feature-by-Eugene-Finn1.pdf on April 25th 2016).

Note: First shown at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin.


Images

Details
Title

Emtigon

Year

1971

Form

Short

Key phrases

abstract live action, portrait, trance, homelessness, voyeurism, world war i

Language

English

Duration

00:14:00

Original formats

Physical: Film: 16mm

Aspect ratio

to be confirmed

Colour

Black & White

Sound

Yes

Supported by Kildare County Council Arts Service, the Arts Council of Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland.
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