Secret Life

A sequence of domestic vignettes from the sunken suburbs. In the house, the stagnant atmosphere has slowly thickened to liquid. The inhabitants try to carry on as normal but beyond the borders of asphyxiation; communication is limited and expression difficult. Filmed entirely underwater in a submerged house to create an atmosphere unlike any other film.

In Secret Machine, the protagonist encounters an antagonist that is studying her, measuring her body and comparing her to units of space and time. Clocks rush and her movements are calculated on a grid: the eye is observed through lenses; her breath is submitted to a resistance rate by putting her under water; needles are used to quantify her reactions and pain: and her voice and motion are recorded. For the scientist measurement is understanding. While human nature appears confined in the framework and efforts of rationality, the aspiration of trapping the soul conduce the antagonist to imagine the improvable.

Seven Days ‘til Sunday, the first of three Jolley/Reynolds film collaborations, is a sequence of short episodes in which headless figures fall through the architecture of New York, incinerate in their own living room, detonate on wet ground. This strange depiction of anonymous, marginalised individuals meeting their end amid relentless urbanisation provides the imagery, but beyond the particularisation of their fates ‘the narrative stands for the tragi-comedy of life itself in a remote, indifferent universe.’

The Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic) opened in 1976 as a meeting place for the East German people and an emblem of the future. The unique modern building made of distinctive golden-mirrored windows was home to not just the East German Parliament but also auditoriums, art galleries, five restaurants, concert halls, and even a bowling alley. The building's dazzling public lobby, surrounded by several tiers, was once the center of social life in East Berlin with thousands of sparkling lamps filling the open space of the lobby's grand staircase.