BONELLO SHORT

The following is a short film Bonello did with Asia Argento, a star and director associated with the New Extreme, titled CINDY: THE DOLL IS MINE, which played at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.  The film is clearly referencing the work of Cindy Sherman, an artist associated with abject art, and the self-portraits that she is known for.  Bonello and Argento, who worked together in ON WAR (2008), problematize gender by casting Argento in a stereotypically feminine role of performer and a stereotypically masculine role of artist.  Like male and female are challenged in TIRESIA, CINDY: THE DOLL IS MINE questions femininity and masculinity in relation to the roles of performance and artistic creation and the relationship between performer and director.

TIRESIA SCREENING

"Full of powerfully emotional scenes, even if it's almost entirely untouchable -- obtuse, bewildering and almost agonisingly slow."

-Rich Cline, SHADOW ON THE WALL

"The overall intention remains inscrutable, despite the strong presence of the performers and Bonnello’s attempt to will significance into the material by holding each shot over a glacial time-span."

-TIME OUT LONDON

"Intense, intriguing, beautifully framed and intellectually challenging, TIRESIA defies easy categorisation (much like its principal character)."

-Anton Bitel, EYE FOR FILM

In a film movement linked by the connection between transgression and transcendence, Bertrand Bonnello's TIRESIA stands out as one of the New Extremes most difficult, frustrating, and rewarding works.  A film that demands you meet it more than half way as well as requires a fair knowledge of Greek mythology, TIRESIA is steeped in classical traditions as well as modernist filmmaking.  Following the imprisonment of a pre-op transsexual prostitute and her subsequent blinding and gift of prophecy, the film touches on the abject and issues of fate.  As an in-between body, on that challenges preconceived order, such as gender, Tiresia, the character, and TIRESIA, the film, are an interesting addition to transgender film.

Suggested Supplemental Screenings:  TRANSAMERICA (Duncan Tucker, 2005), HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001), ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (Pedro Almodovar, 1999), XXY (Lucia Puenzo, 2007), BOYS DON'T CRY (Kimberly Peirce, 1999)