Requiem For A Friend

The critic, when confronted by something which is very consciously modern art, can take one of two paths: 1) attempt to conceal his or her ignorance and boldly proclaim the work as "brilliant, adjective, adjective, and adjective;" or 2) be honest, and say "what the hell was all that about?" For narrator and director Antero Alli's "video poem," based on German lyric poet Rainer Maria Rilke's poem "Requiem For a Friend" I've got to go with option number two. Actually, since my background is in literature, I am not completely unfamiliar with Rilke's work which is sometimes striking, sometimes pedestrian, and reasonably dense. Rilke's poem was written as a tribute to his friend Paula Modersohn-Becker, who died from complications following childbirth. Requiem For a Friend, meant to be used as a ritual lament (utilitarian art, no less), is a recital of the poem while three actresses are seen portraying Paula as an artist (the past), a mother (the future) and a soul (the art part). Even though Alli's narration is slow, and aims for depth but settles for petulance, Rilke's poem really must be read to be understood. The visuals (woman at easel, woman holding baby, woman doing the funky chicken-the art part) certainly don't do much to illuminate the meaning of the poem. In the accompanying literature, Alli says of he and his partner Camille: "after REQUIEM finished its run, we withdrew from the world until Zoe was born." This is highly recommended for those who "withdraw from the world;" for others, however, it's not a necessary purchase. (Available from: ParaTheatrical Research, Box 45758, Seattle, WA 98145.)