Prolific underground filmmaker Fotopoulos’ enigmatic setting of the Coleridge poem, using both 16mm and digital film to create a shifting, layered visual accompaniment. From the linked review:
“Those unfamiliar with the source material needn’t be intimidated. Reacting to another artist’s work, Fotopoulos creates something intrinsically his own. Christabel might be interpreted as the account of a young woman’s dream-thoughts as she nears adulthood, and the four sections of the film (structured to accompany each fragment of Coleridge’s poem) guide her to different levels of introspection. Each layer is charged with specificity, forging connections on multiple levels: corporeal, familial, religious, daemonic, and sexual. The young woman, Christabel, struggles through the blending worlds of waking life and soul-possessed visions….Christabel exists in vibrant, painterly counterpoint to the purposefully bleak, stark minimalism of Fotopoulos’ narratives, Back Against the Wall and Migrating Forms.”Read More »
