Thursday, June 30, 2011

En Rachâchant




Recently I caught up with the Straub-Huillet short film En Rachâchant ('82), which is wonderful in its simplicity.  (The embedded YouTube video I'm including here has no English subtitles, though the intrepid digital explorer can find her own subtitled copy.  Otherwise the primary thing to know is that the child, Ernesto, decides he doesn't want to stay in school because learning things there isn't worth the trouble.  He remains stubborn.)  Mitterand = "a gentleman," a butterly pinned in glass = "a crime," a globe is a football as well as a representation of the earth ... am I wrong to react to this, initially, as a sly, Ivan Illichesque treatment of school as a site of ideological confrontation?

1 comment:

xlpharmacy said...

Great film for sure, the kid is so decided in quiting.