Ecstasy

This video is an analytical montage of shots extracted from more than 60 films from the Chinese Cultural Revolution period. It exclusively studies the moments of the interpellation of the Ideology (Louis Althusser) which are represented physically by music, words, gazes, gestures and situations found in these films. I keep every shot at its original length because the shot is the minimal unit of the cinema. When we work on such a critical subject, keeping the integrity of the shot is the least we can do, in a moral way. Strictly speaking, Ecstasy does not lend itself to a specific synopsis, but this does not mean that there is nothing to look at in it. The multiple symbols and meanings extracted from a wide range of shots make up the narratives found in this video: The resemblance of the music in different films, the dramatic gazes with catchlights (like they are absorbed by an overwhelming feeling of great excitement, where the title Ecstasy comes from), the repetition of the words (like ‘Mao Zhuxi’, Chairman Mao), the robotic gestures (raising one’s head, turning around), the faces with tears, the symbolic objects which reincarnate the transmission of ecstasy (like needle, spanner and apple) and the exaggerated film techniques (close-up, zoom in). This video is one of a series of videos and they are not only reexaminations of the cinema of that period but also reflections of history as told through cinema.