Thoughts on Clara van Gool's COUP DE GRACE

I'm excited to finally meet Clara van Gool whose latest work COUP DE GRACE (see the making of) indicates that she is ready to do a feature film, which she apparently is. Her website indicates that she is working on a feature inspired by Henry James' short story Beast in the Jungle. With that in mind, I have been reading James stories. The Aspern Papers is an amazingly gripping read, given its rather static subject. Turn of the Screw has labored writing in the first half, to the point that I wondered why all the fuss about this short story. But then, the second half was so captivating that I missed an appointment. Same for Beast in the Jungle, it begins with a low growl. But on I'll read to see what might have grabbed Clara whose ENTER ACHILLES, NUSSIN, BITINGS & OTHER EFFECTS, ZKIR are all so visually and dynamically exact.

Just read Sandor Marai's Embers that inspired the making of ölelés(2003) danced by Jordi Cortes Molina and Damian Munoz that Clara adapted for the screen. A fascinating,  compelling drama, Embers also inspired a play produced in 2006, starring Jeremy Irons, as written by Christopher James Hampton (LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES). From the review of the play by Lizzie Loveride in A Curtain Up London Review, it would seem COUP DE GRACE is way more successful than the play. 

Midway through Embers,  the more Aristocratic of the two characters points out that the words for kill and embrace (ölelés) have the same root in Hungarian. He delivers a monologue polished over 40 years of separation from his childhood friend who vanished one day after the love triangle was revealed. We can only imagine the friend's response who sits in silence, refusing to answer his friends questions - except to answer once, "Why do you ask? You already know the answer." As a dance, though, the two men reveal all the ambiguities of  their relationship. They dance with a keen awareness of each other as only a couple who have known each other deeply.

For me this duet serves as a metaphor for ideal pairing of dance and film, choreographer and cinematographer, sound/set designer and dancer. We never feel any separation between the two dancers, nor one taking the lead. Unlike a tango, when a woman must surrender to the man, this duet is one that could only be danced by two equals - equally complex. the couple are so intertwined that they dance as one, but they also infuriate/fascinate each other. They are each other's obsession.

Clara will come to NYC for the Festival which runs January 27-31, 2012, courtesy of the Consulate General of The Netherlands.

DOCF 2012 will present 20 programs, 14 at the Walter Reade Theatre, Lincoln Center,  and 6 programs at the Elinor Munroe Bunin Film Center across the street from the Reade on West 65th Street. NEA, NYSCA, Department of Cultural Affairs, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Consulate General of Spain, Susan Braun Trust, and others make the 40th Dance on Camera Festival possible.