Lilith Kraxner Milena Czernovsky
Who is Beatrix? Or rather: what is Beatrix doing? We see her playing, daydreaming with a giant inflatable ball, absent-mindedly watching the TV, washing, watering the garden, taking a bath, biting into a grape, entertaining friends, observing every tiny detail of the world she lives in. Maybe, she mostly does nothing. She’s spending time in an empty house over the summer. For their first opus, Lilith Kraxner & Milena Czernovsky engage in an art of portraiture where nothing is explained, where words are absent and the original intention is to connect a body with a setting, a body with a possible narrative. The film reveals possibilities, suggests situations and the beginnings of desire. A tightly framed portrait, shifting our attention to a hand, the corner of a table or a piece of wall. The concept of the film gradually becomes apparent: to unframe, never revealing everything, leaving grey areas, observing – sometimes with a touch of humour – barely formed movements, described in detail with a hint of triviality. We enter into the intimacy of this solitary young woman, who remains an enigma. This is Beatrix, alone with herself. Frame after frame, the film sketches out the intimate portrait of a woman and her doubts, steering clear of elucidation. A huis-clos where she wanders from room to room as the house becomes, as we understand, a space that represents a future to be inhabited. It is also an image, as revealed by the scansion of the scenes where Beatrix contemplates herself in the mirror, adjusting her clothing, scrutinising her body. Finding a place, creating an image, opening up the possibilities of a narrative.
(Nicolas Feodorof)