De humani corporis fabrica

Sicherheitsleute kontrollieren labyrinthische Gänge. Ein Rohrpostsystem verschickt pathologische Präparate. Endoskopische Kameras erkunden das Innere von Menschen. Castaing-Taylor und Paravel sind Anthropolog:innen und Filmemacher:innen des Sensory Ethnography Lab der Harvard Universität; für ihr jüngstes Werk haben sie französische Krankenhäuser und die Körper der Patient:innen erforscht. Kaiserschnittgeburt, Prostataoperation, Zusammenschrauben einer Wirbelsäule: weniger ein immersives als vielmehr ein invasives Filmerlebnis, direkt und blutig, aber nicht ohne Feingefühl und trockenen Humor. Bei Partys heißt der große Hit natürlich „I Will Survive“. (Lars Penning)

From Richard Fleischer’s FANTASTIC VOYAGE to Stan Brakhage’s THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE’S OWN EYES or Yuri Ancarani’s recent film DA VINCI, cinema’s capacity to enter into our bodies has been one of the medium’s most uncanny features for decades. This latest opus by Paravel and Castaing-Taylor (who took the film’s title from a 16th century anatomy tome) certainly brings images of an ultra-modern nature to the screen that would have been unthinkable only few years back.
But beyond the awe for medicine’s wonders, the film tells us the story of a dual fragility: our own and that of the institutions that take care of us. While observing ourselves from the inside, we witness the daily work of doctors and nurses in conditions that often stand in stark contrast to the precision of the robot’s images. From the basements to the roofs, hospitals are investigated as organisms in which humans and machines come together in the endless struggle against malady. Paravel and Castaing-Taylor’s unique sensitivity manages to capture the frailty of our social and physical bodies without voyeurism and create a mirror that we can eventually not avoid looking into. (Rebecca De Pas)

Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor: IN AND OUT OF AFRICA (1992, K), SWEETGRASS (2009, KO-REGIE), THE HIGH TRAIL (2010, K), HELL ROARING CREEK (2010), LEVIATHAN (2012), NATURE MORTE (2013, K), AH HUMANITY! (2015, K), SOMNILOQUIES (2017, K), CANIBA (2017)