Fructose, Fructose

Deep in the British countryside, the English State has preserved a tree with great care. It is the famous apple tree of which a fruit, falling, is believed to have inspired Isaac Newton, during one of his bucolic walks around 1666, and his law of universal gravity. Taking as a point of departure this anecdote (manufactured in reality 30 years later by the wise man’s first biographer) and the current site of this legendary tree, Iván Argote, a young Colombian artist (The Messengers, FID2015), already famous for his interventions in public spaces, carries out experiments as choreo- graphic as sculptural by the grace, among others, of slowed down images which allow better observation of the effect of gravity on diverse bodies. Borrowing popularisation texts from the history of science as well as manuals for children, or indeed educational clips, the film amusingly gives joyous illustrations of scientific phenomena. (JPR)