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DVD 5 Films About Christo and Jeanne-Claude - A Maysles Films Production
After you've seen 5 Films About Christo & Jeanne-Claude, your appreciation for art and artists will be permanently enlightened. Spanning three decades of unique collaboration between controversial public-art creator Christo, his creative partner and wife Jeanne-Claude, and cinema verité pioneers David and Albert Maysles (Salesman, Grey Gardens, and many other award-winning films), this DVD set of five captivating, unscripted documentaries is a living chronicle of art as a public challenge, inviting the viewer to witness the creation and installation of temporary artworks that triumphantly illustrate (as noted by Salon.com essayist Charles Taylor) "the collision between art and everyday life." Whether they are raising a massive "Valley Curtain" of vibrant orange nylon across a Colorado mountain range; a 24-mile "Running Fence" in Northern California; surrounding islands in Florida with gigantic rings of hot-pink fabric; or simultaneously erecting a total of 3,100 huge umbrellas across rolling landscapes in Japan and California, the Christos (who self-finance all of their expensive installations) are both deliriously self-indulgent and open-heartedly generous about their work and the impressive engineering that goes into creating it.
For these and other time-consuming but fleetingly visible endowments of beauty on an epic scale, the Maysles were there with camera and microphone, capturing the impact, controversy, humor, and ultimate glory of Christo's wondrous vision. Accompanied by an engaging 2004 interview between Christo, Jeanne-Claude, and Albert Maysles (David died in 1987), and an 80-page booklet including Taylor's excellent essay and detailed statistics on each of the featured projects, 5 Films is a timeless testament to Christo's assertion that "all of our art is about freedom." It comes as no surprise, then, that the experience of viewing these inspiring films is so joyously liberating. --Jeff Shannon
Review(s): DVD 5 Films About Christo and Jeanne-Claude - A Maysles Films Production
5 films about Christo and Jeanne-Claude - compelling!
I never heard of Christo before watching these films, so it was a treat discovering them, and his art projects at the same time. These documentaries are very interesting, all of them cover his projects from pre-production through finish. If it sounds mundane, it's not, as the movies are also very entertaining for various purposes: one, the actual projects are beautiful, and it's a treat to watch people work together to put them up. two, Christo and Jeanne-Claude themselves are crazy and interesting people to watch. three, none of these projects were easy to get permission for, the process and heart-aches they go through to get permission is all accounted here. The subject matter is interesting, but the documentaries are also dramatically compelling in their structure.
At one point, after wrapping the pont neuf, two strangers in Paris argue about whether or not this is art. The man in favor of it says "you and I don't know each other, if this project never materialized, we'd never meet, ever." This is the essence of Christo's work! He brings people together to celebrate the spirit of self-expression. Ridiculous or not, art or not, it is important an achievement and it provokes discussion.
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