Viennale-Trailer 2022: Songs From Naples

„Rote Lippen soll man küssen“, sang einst Cliff Richard, und das ist wohl auch die erste Assoziation, die einem angesichts der geschürzten roten Frauenlippen kommt, die die 94-jährige deutsch-argentinische Experimentalfilmerin Narcisa Hirsch in SONGS FROM NAPLES in Großaufnahme präsentiert. Doch dann beißt der rote Frauenmund mit seinen blendend weißen Zähnen genüsslich in ein Stück rohe Leber und bekommt dabei etwas durchaus Raubtierhaftes. Hirsch, die sich in ihren Filmen immer wieder den Themen Frauen, Körper und Sexualität gewidmet hat, greift hier noch einmal auf ein Motiv (und das 16mm-Material) ihres Films CANCIONES NAPOLITANAS aus dem Jahr 1971 zurück. (Lars Penning)

For her contribution to the Viennale’s 60th anniversary, Argentine experimentalist Narcisa Hirsch has chosen to dip back into history. Her trailer is a reconfigured excerpt from her 1971 film CANCIONES NAPOLITANES. In this short passage, we see a close-up of a woman’s mouth, accompanied by the music of Neapolitan singer Robert Murolo. First we see the woman smile, but then she starts eating something slimy. Hirsch’s trailer is concerned with surfaces in many ways, and the fugitive pleasures they can afford us. Her work has always focused on bodies and tactility, the haptic moments that privilege affect over concept or ideology. Here, we are offered the “skin” of the film, its scratches and pockmarks, but also undulating stripes of paint that play against the film’s representational function.
Meanwhile, the woman onscreen eagerly consumes the fruit-gel, her open-mouthed chewing allowing us to see the grape-colored goo coating her teeth and dripping down her chin. Hirsch has found an ideal combination of luxurious and transgressive sensations, the stress of the filmstrip asserting itself as a woman indulges in pure gustatory delight. A suggestive metaphor for the cinematic experience, Hirsch reminds us that when the lights go down, we are sensual beings above all else. (Michael Sicinski)