The Young Man as a Movie Star: Paranoia, Opulence, Perversion, Competition consists of four short feature films. In each of these, the same two actors always play a man of twenty and a woman of fifty, which each have a different relationship to each other.
In Competition they are two fellow performers. In Opulence, a hysterical housewife and a fleeing terrorist. In Paranoia lovers and in Perversion a grieving mother and son. Each film is inspired by the work of an iconic male twentieth century filmmaker, namely Lars von Trier, Alfred Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Godard and Steven Spielberg. The individual films are matched to each other during editing in such a way that a layered total experience arises when they are projected simultaneously in the exhibition space.
Bart Groenendaal is an artist and filmmaker working in Amsterdam. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and did a residency at the Rijksakademie. With his film and video work he questions cinema as a pillar of Western modernity, with its role models for the ‘free’ individual. He also makes drawings. Earlier video work has been shown at De Appel Arts Center in Amsterdam, Moderna Museet in Malmo and Center Pompidou in Paris.
Credits still in header: THE YOUNG MAN MAN AS A MOVIE STAR: PARANOIA, OPULENCE, PERVERSION, COMPETITION BY BART GROENENDAAL
