Sleep #2

In 1963, Andy Warhol used five rolls of 16mm film to capture his then-partner John Giorno in the act of slumber for 321 minutes. For his part, Radu Jude uses an Internet livestream recorded from January ‘22 to January ‘23, whose exclusive object of observation is Warhol’s grave. The concept of the two films may be similar, but their approaches are different. Jude pares down the material to an hour in length and allows the seeming monotony of the frame—its position remains unvaried, although its distance from the subject at times does—to be interrupted by sporadic changes and situations that deprive the mausoleum of any aura of transcendence, even as it retains the mystery of everyday life. The actions of the visitors and workers at the cemetery say much more about the living than the dead, including those non-human guests to the gravesite. If Warhol managed to glimpse some sort of aesthetic dimension in Campbell soup cans, Jude does much the same in selecting the recorded fragments that make up this meaningful tribute, finding beauty in certain shots—especially those of the snow—while a quote from Warhol himself and three haikus by Buson, Bashō and Shoha offer extra nuance. (Roger Koza) 

In the presence of Radu Jude.

Radu Jude: THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (2009), EVERYBODY IN OUR FAMILY (2012), AFERIM! (2015), SCARRED HEARTS (2016), THE DEAD NATION (2017), I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS (2018), THE EXIT OF THE TRAINS (2020, KO-REGIE), UPPERCASE PRINT (2020), BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN (2021), DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD (2023), EIGHT POSTCARDS FROM UTOPIA (2024)