THE LAST SUPPER
Trailer
SYNOPSIS
The Man encounters The Woman in a mysterious place where creatures live. While making love to one of them, he becomes her by changing gender. He opens himself to creation and the possibility of motherhood. He will be judged not for who he is, but for what he wants to become: God. On her side, the woman, as she is impregnated, becomes two. She becomes a mother. She becomes mortal. As she gets pregnant, she reduces her freedom. Yet she refuses to keep this child to keep on being free. This Act isn’t a humanist act trying to deny a child’s life in a doomed world. This is the most selfish expression. The ultimate act of protection. Having a child means a loss of our freedom. It is losing your right to die. Abortion and the guilt that follows only bring an alternate self, a monstrous, ghost around the living, condemned to torture and roam the lonely night with blinded eyes.
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Un homme entre dans un lieu mystérieux peuplé de femmes. En faisant l’amour avec l’une d’elles, il va changer de sexe et devenir Femme. Il va ainsi accéder à la création et au pouvoir d’enfanter. Il sera jugé non pour ce qu’il est, mais pour ce qu’il veut devenir : Dieu. De son côté, la femme, en étant fécondée, devient deux. Elle devient Femme. Elle devient Mère. Elle devient mortelle. En devenant enceinte, elle réduit son espace de liberté. Aussi refuse-t-elle de porter cet enfant afin de rester libre. Ce geste n’est pas celui d’un humanisme visant à refuser la vie à un enfant dans un monde condamné. C’est l’expression la plus aiguë de l’égoïsme. Une forme ultime de protection. Avoir un enfant, c’est aussi perdre sa liberté. C’est ne plus pouvoir mourir. L’avortement et la culpabilité qui l’accompagnent ne pouvant engendrer qu'un moi aliéné, monstrueux, fantôme parmi les vivants, voué à la torture de l’errance. À la nuit solitaire aux yeux aveugles.
AUDIO
ABOUT JOHN ZOHN
I had written a voice-over in order to guide the spectator. With words, life and emotions were hard to find because the images were already strong and powerful. I had to keep my mouth shut, listen to my instinct and trust the composer. I wanted the movie to be at the same time literary, philosophical, mythological and visually, poetically, and plastically adventurous. I wanted people to be haunted by themselves after having seen what haunts me. But maybe it will never happen. People won’t see anything other than boobs and heels. I received a few months ago a nice and full of humour e-mail. I thought at first it was a mistake and that it was an e-mail for Peter Greenaway. But no, it was for me! It was written: “Could we say you have put Zorn’s music to attenuate the noise the seats will make when the spectators will leave the projection room in the middle of the movie? By the way, nice tits and beautiful asses. I didn’t completely lose my time!”
I was talking about the voice-over I had to take off because it spoke to the intellect more than to the guts. It broke the hypnosis. But the other reason that pushed me not to put the voice-over was the music. I can’t speak about the creative process of this movie without speaking of the composer John Zorn. I passed him a DVD with the first edited version, storyboard and scenario during his residency in Paris at the Cité de la Musique. I wrote him a letter asking to license some music, specifically, his string quartet Kol Nidre. He answered me and flatly dismissed the idea arguing that putting a piece of religious music on a sex scene wasn’t the best idea I had! But as he very much loved the story and the images he saw, he offered to do an entirely original score.
The collaboration with Zorn has been an amazing input of energy, sensibility and fragility. Zorn’s first response to the bizarre violence of the images was with very intense sounds, envisioning Bill Laswell, Marc Ribot, The Marc Ribot!, Ikue Mori and Willie Winant on industrial / noise percussion. But the more we spooked about the film, the more he sensed a deeper feeling of ritualistic calm and subtlety running through it all. He finally decided to go with the mystical sound of the world’s first musical instruments: voices and percussion. I wrote a long and poetic voice-over I loved very much. I had to forget about it. Zorn turned the words into music (without even maybe reading them!), A magician… and a man with a word. The score has then been quickly recorded and mixed with Marc Urselli’s help.
Deleuze explains that the artist’s images are made to become percepts that create feelings able to survive to those who will feel them. For a composer, it’s different. Zorn’s music creates effects – evolutions that exceed the forces of the one who tests them. The Last Supper tries to bind a cinematographical idea, the visual percepts and musical effects. By using this narrative fiction, the movie tries to give eternity to emotions. David and I tried to create the imperishable with perishable things: with words, acts, beauty, determinations, sounds, stones, colours, so that the emotions last beyond the ages.
TRINITY TRYPTICH
Trinity Tryptich
Laios
Jocaste
Oedipus
FILM STILLS
MONOLITH
Edition of 7 original copies of the 20 minutes film.
Each monolith in dark tainted steel (16 x 24 x 6 inches) includes :
1 high-resolution beta num Master from the movie.
2 DVD for screenings. (PAL & NTSC).
4 inkjet prints (12 x 16 inches) pure cotton paper Hahnmühle Photo Rag UltraSmooth 310g.
1 CD of the Last Supper’s score composed and signed by John Zorn.
20 inches of the original Super 8 mm original negative film.
Format image : 4/3 PAL.
Sound : Stereo.
Color
Super 8 mm
Edition of 7
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7 copies originales seront tirées de la version de 20 minutes du film.
Chaque monolithe en acier teinté (40 x 50 x 15 cm) comprend :
1 Master en haute définition (Béta Numérique).
2 DVD de lecture. (PAL & NTSC).
4 tirages jet d'encre sur papier coton Hahnmühle Photo Rag UltraSmooth 310g (30 x 40 cm).
1 CD de la bande originale du film composée et signée par John Zorn.
50 cm de pellicule Super 8 mm du négatif original du film.
Format image : 4/3 PAL.
Son : Stéréo.
Couleur
Super 8 mm
Édition de 7
Special thanks to Urs Bigler, Chantel Dosser, Jean-Paul Fleury, Sacha Goldberger and Dominik Von Schultess for their photographs and to Vincent Gagliostro for his supporting help. Very special thanks to David Gil for his heart and soul.
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Downloads
Arno Bouchard - Interview - English ➝
Arno Bouchard - Interview - French ➝
The Last Supper - Press Release ➝
The Last Supper - Dossier de Presse ➝
The Last Supper - Pitch - English ➝
The Last Supper - Pitch - French ➝
The Last Supper - Why that Movie? ➝
The Last Supper - Pourquoi ce Film? ➝
The Last Supper - Credits ➝
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In loving memory of Dan Salzmann (17th May 1960 – 16th February 2009)
MMXXII © ARNO BOUCHARD