San Francisco Public Library

Leviathan, a film by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel ; Arrête ton Cinéma

videorecording

Rating: Not rated

Leviathan

videorecording

860718274

a film by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel ; Arrête ton Cinéma

87

In this cinema verité work set entirely on a groundfish trawler out of New Bedford, Mass., the filmmakers have avoided the standard equipment of interviews, analysis and explanation. A product of the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard, the film offers not information but immersion in wind, water, grinding machinery and piscine agony. The brutality of fishing, as opposed to its romance, is emphasized here. The experience is often unnerving and sometimes nauseating, because of the motions of the juddering, swaying hand-held camera and also because of the distended eyes, gasping mouths and mutilated flesh of the catch. Presented without dialogue, speech is drowned out by the roar of the elements and the screech and thump of engines and hydraulic winches

live action