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The Captive (2022), single channel video and sound, runtime 10:50
When the cinematic trope of the car with the “rear projected” road is employed, but the primary subjects, the people inside the car, are removed, what is the viewer left with? What kind of assumptions will the viewer make when there are no drivers and no passengers, no conversation, and no exposition?
More often than not, rear-projected car scenes in classic cinema depict a conversation between a man and a woman. These simple, expository scenes can be the stage for complex power dynamics.
In ‘The Captive’, the movie studio, the car, the curtain, and the rear projection are all recreated and animated in 3D software. The film also features an original sound design created from a patchwork of iconic film composers of the early Hollywood studio era, such as Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, and Bernard Hermann, all Jewish composers who found new homes in the Hollywood studio system after fleeing persecution in Europe.
In one sense, the film is about an artificial recreation of an obsolete practical effect using the newfangled digital tools which dominate the film and special effects industries today.
In another sense, the film is about haunting and nostalgia: a “romance with one's own fantasy.”
installation photos by Matt Barnes: