Film Screening - Reviews

A STUDY IN THE RELATION OF INNER AND OUTHER SPACE
Dir: DAVID LAMELAS
Year: 1969

In his 1969 film "A study in the relation of inner and outer space", David Lamelas presents us with a clinically descriptive narrative about some facts of the city of London. Lamelas restrains himself from jumping into judgements and conclusions. He doesn't "connect any dots" of information.
The film starts depicting a gallery space to the minutiae of electric voltage use and decibels produced. What at first resembles a Monty Python sketch in it's awkwardness and surreal character turns into a cold description of London. Devoid of any emotions and using a monotone narrator, Lamelas builds a black and white portrait of a civilisation that appears to be long gone, from which only unconnected data remains.
Despite his use of a very straightforward approach, Lamelas is able to weave some poetical moments, such as the calm, silent footages of the aircraft movement in Heathrow airport.
However, as the film approaches it's conclusion, there is a rupture in it's structure. In a cold cut, the soulless descriptive narrative is replaced by interviews done by Lamelas on the streets of London. The interviews's subject, "man's landing on the moon", relates somehow to the issue of inner and outer space, but it completely brakes the aesthetic proposition of the film. Moreover, the interviews are performed by Lamelas himself, who tries to put the subjects in a awkward position asking them questions such as: "Would you be surprised if the first man on the moon was black?". Furthermore, the inclusion of the racial issues at end of the film, backed by Lamelass shallow approach to them and the natural way people responded to his questions, weaken and crack what could be a more closed, concise and powerful work.