Eisenstein was supposed to work for the government, Goya for the king. I work for the art market. Throughout the history of art, there has been a specific client, the church or the government. It is interesting that as soon as institutions ceased to be the main customers, artists began to have new problem searching for what they want to depict on canvas. Unlike the king, the art market does not dictate what exactly we need to do, so I am freer than the artists who came before me.
Goya did not create etchings for the church or kings, so they are much closer to what I do. In the case of Eisenstein, we tried, we tried to remove a lot of the political context, we slowed down the footage, leaving only the images, so we tried to get away from politics. When I was a student, I never thought about the political background, the repression, the pressure that went hand in hand with making these films. But the more I studied Eisenstein, the more I realized that he simply wanted to make films - and for this, alas, he was forced to seek government support.
When Caravaggio found himself in Rome, he had to work for the church. Otherwise, he simply would not have had the opportunity to paint large paintings. As a result, he was forced to retell the same stories over and over again. It's funny how similar it is to a popular Hollywood movie. So we have much more in common with the artists of the past than we used to think, and their influence on each other is difficult to overestimate. Eisenstein himself studied Goya's work and even created paintings that look like storyboards - here are six of them, all together they actually look like storyboards for a movie. And the etchings are even numbered.
One way or another, all artists are connected and influenced by each other. The history of art is a great weapon that helps us cope with the challenges of each new day. And personally, I also use art to get there - this is my time machine.
Francisco Goya, "The Tragic Case of a Bull Attacking the Spectators in the Madrid Arena"
Series "Tauromachy", sheet 21
We learned that the Museum of the Revolution in Moscow holds a complete set of Goya's etchings. It was a gift from the USSR in 1937 as a token of gratitude for helping the Spaniards fight Franco. The etchings are simply unique: the last copy was made from Goya's original plates and all of them - which is simply amazing - look as if they were printed yesterday. At the exhibition we tried to avoid the most famous works- I just think that people will look at unfamiliar works a little longer. We also chose those that I think look almost like a film or journalism.
I even have one etching by Goya at home, I bought it a long time ago. And of those presented at the exhibition, my favorite is the one with the bull. The work looks exactly like a still from a movie - everything somehow works together cinematically, the bull with the tail and the people it seems to crash into. When I look at this work, I always think about what happened before and what will happen after this moment. Just like in the movies.
Francisco Goya, "Amazing Folly"
Series “Proverbs”, sheet 3
Here is another work that I really like - Goya’s family stands in a row, as if birds are sitting on a tree branch. I myself have three sons, and this engraving reminds me of family, there is something beautiful and important about it.
When I paint, I really often think about what will happen later to the characters in my painting. I often do a frame exercise, like in a comic strip, where I sketch out a lot of rectangles. different sizes and experimenting with the composition inside. And Eisenstein in this sense is an excellent example to follow, his compositions are impeccable: the picture is often built around a diagonal and such a structure creates psychological tension.
Sergei Eisenstein and Grigory Alexandrov, frame from the film “Battleship Potemkin”
I love all of Eisenstein’s films, and from Potemkin I remember first of all this beautiful scene with boats in the harbor. The water glistens and it makes the shot incredibly beautiful. And my most favorite shot is probably the one with the big flag and Lenin screaming. Both of these shots are truly masterpieces of sorts.
Sergei Eisenstein, still from the film “Sentimental Romance”
In the film “Sentimental Romance” there is an incredibly powerful shot: a woman stands in an apartment by the window. It really looks like a painting.
And I'm also very interested in seeing what happened when we placed these films side by side - in the cinema you see scene by scene, but here you see slow-motion images of different films located next to each other. This strange collage, it seems to me, makes it clear how Eisenstein's brain works. In his films, the cameras did not move behind the actors, they were static, and each time he offers us clearly constructed, specific images. Eisenstein worked at the dawn of cinema, and each frame had to be imagined in advance - actually seen future movie image after image.
Cinema, painting and contemporary art are one and the same thing: the creation of pictures. The other day I was in a museum, looking for the Black Square, and while walking through all these halls of images and paintings, I realized something important. The main power of art is the burning desire of a human being to explain to you what exactly it sees. “This is how I see,” the artist tells us. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes it may seem to you that the crown of a tree resembles a face, and you immediately want to tell your friend about it, ask him: “Do you see what I see?” Making art is an attempt to show people how you see the world. And at the heart of this is the desire to feel alive.
Robert Longo, untitled, 2016
(The plot is related to the tragic events in Baltimore. - Note ed.)
I chose this image to show not only what happened, but also to explain to you how I see and feel about it. At the same time, of course, it was necessary to create an image that the viewer would want to look at. And I also think that you may not read the newspapers and not know about what happened, but this is wrong - it is important to see everything.
I love the painting (a painting by Théodore Gericault, painted in 1819, based on the shipwreck of a frigate off the coast of Senegal. - Note ed.) - for me this is a truly amazing work about terrible disaster. Do you remember what it was? Of the 150 people on the raft, only 15 survived. I also try to show the beauty of disasters, and a great example is the bullet holes in my paintings.
I am far from politics, and ideally I would like to be able to live my life and just know that people are not suffering. But I do what I have to do - and show what I have to show.
I think both of these artists were in a similar situation. It is a pity that the deep ideas of Eisenstein's films were distorted. It's similar to the situation in America: the idea of democracy, which lies at the heart of our country, has been constantly distorted. Goya was also a witness terrible events, and he wanted to make us look at things realistically, as if to stop what was happening. He talks about slowing down the world and perception. I think I also deliberately slow things down with my images. You can turn on your computer and quickly look through thousands of images on the Internet, but I want to create them in a way that stops time and allows you to look at things more closely. To do this, in one work I can combine several images, as in classical art, and this idea of connecting the unconscious is incredibly important to me.
Robert Longo, untitled
January 5, 2015 (the work is a tribute to the memory of the editors of Charlie Hebdo. - Note ed.)
This topic was extremely important for me, because I am an artist myself. Hebdo is a magazine where cartoonists, that is, artists, worked. What happened really shocked me: each of us could have been among those people who were killed. This is not just an attack on Hebdo - it is an attack on all artists. What the terrorists wanted to say was: you shouldn't make pictures like this, so this threat actually concerns me.
I chose cracked glass as the basis for the image. First of all, it's beautiful - you'll want to look at it one way or another. But that's not the only reason: it reminded me of a jellyfish, some kind of organic creature. Hundreds of cracks radiate from the hole in the glass, like an echo of a terrible event that happened. The event is in the past, but its consequences continue. It's really scary.
Robert Longo, untitled
2015 (the work is dedicated to the September 11 disaster. - Note ed.)
On September eleventh I was playing basketball in one of the gyms Brooklyn, on the 10th floor of a tall building, and I could see everything perfectly from the window. And my studio is located not far from the site of the tragedy, so I couldn’t get there for a long time. In my studio there is big picture, created in honor of this terrible event - at first I just sketched a drawing on the wall of the studio and drew an airplane. The same plane that flew into the first tower, I painted it on the wall. Then I had to repaint the studio walls, and I was very worried that the drawing would disappear, so I made another one. Please note that all my drawings in the exhibition are covered with glass - and as a result you see your reflections in them. Planes crash into reflections, and parts of some of my works are reflected in each other. There are certain angles in the exhibition where you can see a bullet hole in Jesus from a certain angle, and here you see a plane crashing into something.
For me, overlaying drawings on top of each other is not just a chronology of disasters, but rather an attempt to heal. Sometimes we take poison to get better, and it is important to have the courage to live with open eyes, to be courageous to see certain things. I myself am probably not very courageous man- all men like to think that they are brave, but most of them, it seems to me, are cowards.
I'm lucky to have the opportunity to exhibit, and I use this opportunity to talk about what I think is important. There is no need to create something mysterious, complex, full of narcissism. Instead, it is better to address the issues that matter now. This is what I think about the real tasks of art.
Chief Curator of the Museum contemporary art"Garage"
Kate Fowle and Robert Longo
Robert Longo,
with whom Posta-Magazine met at the installation of the exhibition, spoke about what is hidden under the colorful layer of Rembrandt’s paintings, the power of the image, as well as “primitive” and “high” in art.
Looking at Robert Longo's hyper-realistic graphics, it's hard to believe that these are not photographs. And yet it is so: monumental images modern city, nature or disasters are drawn with charcoal on paper. They are almost tactile - so elaborate and detailed - and for a long time they attract attention with their epic scale.
Longo has a quiet but confident voice. After listening to the question, he thinks for a second, and then speaks - confidentially, as with an old acquaintance. Complex abstract categories in his story gain clarity and even seem physical fitness. And by the end of our conversation, I understand why.
Inna Logunova: Having looked at the mounted part of the exhibition, I was impressed by the monumentality of your images. It’s amazing how modern and archetypal they are at the same time. Is your goal as an artist to capture the essence of time?
Robert Longo: We, artists, are reporters of the time in which we live. Nobody pays me - neither the government nor the church, I can rightfully say: my work is how I see the world around me. If we take any example from the history of art, say, paintings by Rembrandt or Caravaggio, we will see in them a cast of life - as it was in that era. I think this is what is really important. Because in a sense, art is a religion, a way to separate our ideas about things from their real essence, from what they really are. This is his enormous strength. As an artist, I’m not selling you anything, I’m not talking about Christ or politics - I’m just trying to understand something about life, asking questions that make the viewer think and doubt some generally accepted truths.
And the image, by definition, is archetypal; the mechanism of its influence is connected with our deepest foundations. I draw with charcoal - the oldest material prehistoric man. The irony is that at this exhibition, technologically, my works are the most primitive. Goya worked in a complex, still modern technique of etching, Eisenstein made films, and I just draw with charcoal.
That is, you use primitive material to bring out some ancient principle?
Yes, I have always been interested in the collective unconscious. At one time I was simply obsessed with the idea of finding and capturing his images and, in order to get somehow closer to this, I made a drawing every day. I am American, my wife is European, she was formed in a different visual culture, and it was she who helped me understand how much I myself am a product of the image system of my society. We consume these images every day without even realizing that they are part of our flesh and blood. For me, the process of drawing itself is a way to realize what of all this visual noise is really yours, and what is imposed from the outside. Actually, a drawing, in principle, is an imprint of the unconscious - almost everyone draws something while talking on the phone or thinking. Therefore, both Goya and Eisenstein are represented in the exhibition with drawings.
Where did you get this special interest in the works of Goya and Eisenstein?
In my youth, I constantly drew something, made sculptures, but I did not have the courage to consider myself an artist, and I did not see myself in this capacity. I was tossed from side to side: I wanted to be a biologist, a musician, or an athlete. In general, I had certain inclinations in each of these areas, but in fact the only thing I was really good at was art. I thought that I could find myself in art history or restoration - and went to study in Europe (at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence - author's note), where I watched and studied the old masters a lot and enthusiastically. And at a certain moment, something seemed to click in me: enough, I want to answer them with something of my own.
I first saw Goya’s paintings and etchings in 1972, and they struck me with their cinematic quality. After all, I grew up watching television and cinema, my perception was predominantly visual - in my youth I hardly even read, books came into my life after thirty. Moreover, it was black and white television - and the images of Goya connected in my mind with my own past, my memories. I was also impressed by the strong political component of his work. After all, I belong to a generation for which politics is part of life. Before my eyes, a close friend was shot dead during student protests. Politics became a stumbling block in our family: my parents were staunch conservatives, and I was a liberal.
As for Eisenstein, I always admired the thoughtfulness of his images and his masterful camera work. He influenced me a lot. In the 1980s, I constantly turned to his theory of montage. Back then I was especially interested in collage: how the combination or collision of two elements gives rise to something completely new. Let's say, cars crashing into each other are no longer two material objects, but something third - a car accident.
Goya was a political artist. Is your art political?
It's not that I was deeply involved in politics, but certain situations in life forced me to take political position. So, in high school I was mostly only interested in girls, sports and rock and roll. And then the police shot my friend - and I couldn't stand by any longer. I felt an internal need to talk about it, or rather, to show it - but not so much through the events themselves, but rather through their consequences, slowing them down and enlarging them.
And today the main thing for me is to stop the flow of images, the number of which is constantly increasing. They pass before our eyes with incredible speed and therefore lose all meaning. I feel like I have to stop them, fill them with content. After all, the perception of art differs from an everyday, sliding glance at things - it requires concentration and therefore makes you stop.
Was it your idea to combine Robert Longo, Francisco Goya and Sergei Eisenstein in one exhibition?
Of course not. Goya and Eisenstein are titans and geniuses, I don’t even pretend to be next to them. The idea belonged to Kate (Kate Fowle, chief curator of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art and curator of the exhibition - author's note), who wanted to stage my work recent years into some context. At first I was very confused by her idea. But she said: “Try to look at them as friends, not sacred monsters, and establish a dialogue with them.” When I finally decided, another difficulty arose: it was clear that we would not be able to bring Goya from Spain. But then I saw Eisenstein’s graphics and remembered Goya’s etchings that so impressed me in my youth - and then I realized what the three of us had in common: drawing. And black and white. And we began to work in this direction. I selected Eisenstein's drawings, and Kate's Goya's etchings. She figured out how to organize the exhibition space - to be honest, I myself felt a little lost when I saw it, I didn’t understand at all how to work with it.
Among the works presented at the exhibition are two works based on X-ray photographs of Rembrandt’s paintings “Head of Christ” and “Bathsheba”. What special truth were you looking for inside these paintings? What did you find?
Several years ago, an exhibition entitled “Rembrandt and the Faces of Christ” was held in Philadelphia. Finding myself among these paintings, I suddenly realized: this is what the invisible looks like - after all, religion, in essence, is based on belief in the invisible. I asked a restoration artist friend of mine to show me X-rays of other Rembrandt paintings. And this feeling - that you see the invisible - only strengthened. Because the X-ray images show himself creative process. What’s interesting: while working on the image of Jesus, Rembrandt painted a whole series of portraits of local Jews, but in the end the face of Christ is devoid of Semitic features - he is still a European. And on the X-ray, where earlier versions of the image are visible, he generally looks like an Arab.
In “Bathsheba” I was occupied by another point. Rembrandt depicted her resigned to her fate: she is forced to share a bed with King David, who desired her, and thereby save her husband, who, if she refuses, he will immediately send to war to certain death. The x-ray shows that initially Bathsheba has a completely different expression on her face, as if she is even looking forward to the night with David. All this is incredibly interesting and excites the imagination.
And if your work were x-rayed, what would we see in these photographs?
I was quite angry when I was young - I am still angry now, but less so. Under my drawings I wrote terrible things: whom I hated, whose death I wished. Fortunately, as an art critic friend told me, charcoal drawings are usually not X-rayed.
And if we talk about the outer layer, people who don’t look closely at my works mistake them for photographs. But the closer they get to them, the more lost they become: this is neither traditional figurative painting nor modernist abstraction, but something in between. Being extremely detailed, my drawings always remain shaky and a little unfinished, which is why they could never be photographs.
What comes first for you as an artist - form or content, idea?
I was influenced by conceptual artists, they were my heroes. And for them the idea is paramount. It is impossible to ignore the form, but the idea is extremely important. Since art ceased to serve the church and the state, the artist again and again must answer the question for himself - what the hell am I doing? In the 1970s, I was painfully searching for a form in which I could work. I could choose any: conceptual artists and minimalists deconstructed everything possible ways creating art. Anything could be art. My generation was engaged in the appropriation of images; images of images became our material. I took photos and videos, staged performances, made sculptures. Over time, I realized that drawing is somewhere between “high” art - sculpture and painting - and something completely marginal, even despised. And I thought: what if we take and enlarge the drawing to the scale of a large canvas, turn it into something grandiose, like a sculpture? My drawings have weight, they physically interact with the space and the viewer. On the one hand, these are the most perfect abstractions, on the other, the world in which I live.
Robert Longo and Kate Fowle in Russian state archive
literature and art
Details from Posta-Magazine
The exhibition is open from September 30 to February 5
Museum of Contemporary Art "Garage", st. Krymsky Val, 9, p. 32
About other projects of the season: http://garagemca.org/
Robert is known to a wide audience as the director of the cult film Johnny Mnemonic based on the story by the father of cyberpunk, William Gibson. But he is also an excellent artist - and opens two exhibitions in the capital at once. The “Evidence” project at Garage is dedicated to the work of three authors - Francisco Goya, Sergei Eisenstein and Longo himself, who, as co-curator, ties together this multi-layered story. And the Triumph gallery will show works by artists from his studio.
GUSKOV: Robert, the Garage will feature Eisenstein, Goya, and your works. How did you put it all together?
LONGO (laughs): Well, that’s why museums exist, to show different things together. (Seriously.) In fact, the idea for the exhibition came from Kate Fowle, she is the curator. She knew that these two authors greatly influenced me as an artist. Kate and I talked about them more than once, she understood what was happening, and two years ago she offered me this story.
GUSKOV: What do you all have in common?
LONGO: First of all, we are all witnesses of the time in which we live or lived, and this is very important.
GUSKOV: Are you an equal participant in this story with Eisenstein and Goya?
LONGO: No, Kate gave me the opportunity to influence the exhibition. Usually artists are not included in the project much: curators simply take your works and tell you what to do. And then I came to Russia twice, studied archives and museum collections.
GUSKOV: What do you think about “Garage”?
LONGO (admiringly): This is very unusual place. I wish there was something like this in the States. What Kate Fowle and Dasha are doing in the Garage (Zhukova. — Interview), simply amazing. As for the exhibition, Eisenstein and Goya and I have one important common feature- graphic arts. Eisenstein's work is incredibly beautiful. Kate helped me get to RGALI, where his works are kept. They are very similar to storyboards, but, in principle, they are independent works.
“UNTITLED (PENTECOST)”, 2016.
GUSKOV: Eisenstein's graphics, like Goya's, are rather gloomy.
LONGO: Yes, mostly black and white. Gloominess is also a common characteristic for the three of us. That is, of course, there are other colors in Goya’s paintings, but here we are talking about his etchings. In general, it is very difficult to beg his work for an exhibition. We looked in different museums, but one of Kate's assistants found out that the Museum modern history Russia holds a complete selection of Goya's etchings, which was donated to the Soviet government in 1937 in honor of the anniversary of the revolution. The most wonderful thing is that it was last edition, made from original author's boards. They look so fresh as if they were made yesterday.
GUSKOV: By the way, cinema is also part of your creativity. Did Eisenstein influence you so much that you decided to make films?
LONGO: Absolutely right. I first saw his films when I was in my twenties and they blew my mind. But as an American, it was difficult for me to grasp the political implications. At that time we didn’t really understand how Soviet propaganda worked. But putting that aspect aside, the films themselves are simply amazing.
GUSKOV: Like Eisenstein, didn’t everything go smoothly with your cinema?
LONGO: Yeah. I certainly didn't have to deal with Stalin when I made Johnny Mnemonic, but all those Hollywood assholes spoiled my blood. They tried their best to ruin the film.
GUSKOV: Damn producers!
LONGO: Can you imagine?! When I started working on the film, my friend Keanu Reeves, who starred in it, was not yet so famous. But then Speed came out and he became a superstar. And now the movie is ready, and the producers decide to make it a “summer blockbuster.” (Indignantly.) Launch it on the same weekend as the next Batman or Die Hard. What can I say, my budget was 25 million dollars, and these films had a hundred each. Naturally, Johnny Mnemonic was a box office failure. Moreover, than more money pump up to make a blockbuster, the worse the result. They, of course, could have fired me without any problems, but I stayed and tried to keep about 60 percent of the original idea. And yes, (pauses) I wanted the film to be in black and white.
GUSKOV: You wanted to make experimental cinema, but you were prevented. Are your hands free at the exhibition?
LONGO: Certainly. My idea is that artists record time like reporters. But there's a problem here. For example, my friend has five thousand pictures on his iPhone, and this volume is hard to comprehend. Imagine: you enter a hall where Eisenstein’s films are being shown in slow motion. The cinema is no longer perceived as a single whole, but you can see how perfect each frame is. The same with Goya - he has more than 200 etchings. The audience's eyes would glaze over from so many, so we selected a few dozen that most closely matched the sentiments of me and Eisenstein. It’s the same with my works: Kate made a strict selection.
GUSKOV: Has popular culture had a strong influence on you?
LONGO: Yes. I'm 63 years old and part of the first generation to grow up with television. On top of that, I had dyslexia; I only started reading after I was thirty. Now I read a lot, but then I looked more at pictures. This is what made me who I am. In my school years Protests against the Vietnam War began. One guy I studied with died at the University of Kent in 1970, where soldiers shot students. I still remember the photo in the newspaper. My wife, the German actress Barbara Sukowa, was very scared to discover how stuck these images were in my head.
GUSKOV: How did you come to graphics?
LONGO: It is important to me that work, months of work, have been put into my works, and not just pressing a button. People don't immediately understand that this is not a photo.
GUSKOV: For Eisenstein, his drawings, like his films, were a way of therapy to cope with neuroses and phobias, and curb desires. And for you?
LONGO: I think yes. Among some peoples and tribes, shamans do similar things. I understand it this way: a person goes crazy, locks himself in his home and begins to create objects. And then he goes out and shows art to people who also suffer, and they feel better. Through art, artists heal themselves, and the byproduct is helping others. This of course sounds stupid (laughs), but it seems to me that we are modern healers.
GUSKOV: Or preachers.
LONGO: And art is my religion, I believe in it. At least they don't kill people in his name.
(English) Robert Longo , R. 1953) - modern American artist, known for his work in various genres.
Biography
Robert Longo born January 7, 1953 in Brooklyn (New York), USA. He studied at the University of North Texas (Denton), but dropped out. Later he studied sculpture under the guidance of Leonda Finke. In 1972, he received a grant to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and left for Italy. After returning to the USA, he entered State College Buffalo, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1975. At the same time, he met with photographer Cindy Sherman.
In the late 70s, Robert Longo became interested in organizing performances (for example, Sound Distance of a Good Man). Such works were usually accompanied by the creation of a series of photographs and videos, which were then shown as individual works and parts of installations. At the same time, Longo played in a number of New York punk rock bands and even co-founded the Hallwalls gallery. In 1979-81 the artist also worked on the series graphic works"People in cities."
In 1987, Longo presented a series of conceptual sculptures called Object Ghosts. The works from this series are an attempt to rethink and stylize objects from science fiction films (for example, “Nostromo” - that was the name of the ship in the film Alien). A similar idea (but implemented with real props that were used on the set) can be found in the work of Dora Budor.
In 1988, Longo began work on the Black Flag series. The first work in the series was a US flag painted in graphite and visually similar to a painted wooden box. Subsequent works were sculptural images of the US flag made of bronze, each of which was accompanied by a title-signature (for example, “give us back our suffering” - “give us back our suffering”).
In the late 80s, Robert Longo also began filming short films(for example, Arena Brains - "Smart Guys in the Arena", 1987). In 1995, Longo acted as director in the science fiction film Johnny Mnemonic. The film is considered a cult film for the cyberpunk genre. The main role was played by Keanu Reeves.
In the 90s and 2000s, Robert Longo continued to create his hyper-realistic images. Works from the Superheroes (1998) or Ophelia (2002) series look like photographs or sculptures, but are ink paintings. The paintings of the series Balcony (2008-09) and The Mysteries (2009) are written in charcoal.
In 2010, Robert Longo created a series of photographs in the style of “People in Cities” for the Italian brand Bottega Veneta.
In 2016-17 At the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, the exhibition “Testimonies” was held, during which some of the works of Robert Longo were shown to the public.
Robert Longo currently lives in New York, USA. Since 1994 he has been married to German actress Barbara Sukowa. The couple has three children.
The study is an analysis of the film Johnny Mnemonic, the only feature-length film directed by artist Robert Longo.
Alexander URSUL
When getting acquainted with the picture, a number of questions arise. How could a man who became famous for his charcoal drawings, in particular the “Men in the Cities” series, get involved in directing? And also directing such a blockbuster with a star-studded cast? Robert Longo , of course, a commercial artist. His graphics are fashionable, they show how style rules over everything today, and most importantly, over life and death. Robert Longo is a postmodernist. And therefore it can work with everything, absolutely everything. But why did he choose science fiction for self-expression? And for a film adaptation - a work in the cyberpunk genre? What came of it? Is this movie a noticeable phenomenon or a passing one?
First, let's look at what experience Longo had with video before Mnemonic. In the 1980s, he directed several music videos: a video for the song Bizarre Love Triangle by the British rock band New Order (see below), a video for Peace Sells by the American thrash metal band Megadeth, a video for the hit American rock band R.E.M. – The One I Love, etc. The long-term video maker actively uses editing tools - double exposure, quick changes of frames that can last less than a second, etc. The content of the clips has hints of surrealism - for example, a man in a suit who flies down in free fall, but can't fall, etc. In the video for Megadeth, the director relishes the close-up of the performer's singing - no, screaming - lips - later we see close-ups of the lips and clenched teeth of the main character Johnny Mnemonic. The clips were regularly shown on television channels like MTV.
Longo's love of music is not without reason - in his youth he organized the punk band Menthol Wars, which performed in rock clubs in New York in the late 70s. You can listen to one of the compositions here:
In 1987, the artist made a short film (34 min.) about a group of New Yorkers - Arena Brains. I couldn't find this work on the Internet. But there is a work of the same name by Longo the artist (see appendix), where the head of a man, clearly screaming, with exposed teeth (repeated in Longo’s work visual image), where the brain is located, an image of fire is added. Are your brains on fire?
(Stillages from the music video Peace Sells by the metal band Megadeth)
(Stillage from Johnny Mnemonic)
(Longo's work called Arena Brains)
The next step in Longo’s career as a director was the work on the second episode of the fourth season of the project “Tales from the Crypt” (series This’ll Kill Ya) of the American channel HBO. “Tales from the Crypt” is a cult series in certain circles, based on comic books. Each 30-minute episode is a different story in which people do bad things and pay for them. Over the course of several years, 93 episodes of the horror film were filmed, one of which was entrusted to Robert Longo. The director's assistant was the artist's nephew, Christopher Longo (future sound engineer in Hollywood).
“I died, and this man killed me” - these are one of the first words uttered in this “tale”. The series “This Will Kill You” is dedicated to a certain laboratory in which a new drug is being developed - h24. Two scientists - Sophie and Peck - are under the leadership of the self-confident upstart George. One day, instead of the medicine that George needs, his colleagues accidentally inject him with h24 serum, but the new medicine has not yet been tested on humans. The episode contains sex with an ex, love triangle, paranoia, hallucinogenic visions of people covered in bubbles, and murder.
Turning to , it can be noted that Longo often tilts the camera on its side to get unusual angles. The same manner will be present in Johnny Mnemonic. Also actively involved double exposure. Some plans are designed with the dominance of one color, for example, blue (compare with the use of charcoal in the artist’s drawings).
A couple of clips, a short film and one episode - this is Longo’s entire experience in creating videos (before “Mnemonic”). Quite small. But we can already draw conclusions from it. The groups for which the artist made videos, although they work in “youth” genres and are initially underground, become commercially successful. This episode of Tales from the Crypt, like music videos Longo, it seems to us, clearly belongs to popular culture. However, the question remains whether Longo played with style in these works, whether he appropriated it, or whether he simply worked for his own pleasure in new specialty, making money.
Now we will finally begin to analyze the film "Johnny Mnemonic".
What's on the surface? Blockbuster 1995. Genre: cyberpunk. Budget – 26 million dollars. Star cast: Keanu Reeves (who became famous at that time for the film “Speed”), Dolph Lundgren (action actor), Takeshi Kitano (the same Japanese actor and director), Ice-T (actor and rapper), Barbara Zukova (wife of Robert Longo , starred in Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz), Udo Kier (played in Hollywood cinema many charismatic anti-heroes) and others. Musical accompaniment from the creator of the Terminator soundtrack, Brad Fidel. The screenwriter was one of the founders of the cyberpunk genre in literature - William Gibson, the author of the original story "Johnny Mnemonic" and a good friend of Longo.
Initially, Gibson and Longo wanted to make, in their words, an auteur film with a budget of no more than one or two million dollars, but no one gave them that kind of money. The movie has been in development for over five years. Gibson joked that his higher education he got it faster than they made the film. At some point, according to the authors, they came up with the idea of making a movie with a price of 26 million dollars, and then they were willing to meet them.
(Illustrations below: Longo's sketches and footage from the film Johnny Mnemonic itself)
What is this “information age tale,” as science fiction writer Gibson calls it, about?
At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the situation through text running from bottom to top. In the near future - in 2021 - power in the world belongs to powerful transnational corporations. In a world completely dependent on electronic technology, humanity is suffering from a new plague - nervous exhaustion syndrome, or black fever. The disease is fatal. The dictatorship of corporations is opposed by oppositionists who call themselves “Lotex” - hackers, pirates, etc. Corporations, in turn, hire the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) to fight the rebels. There is an information war going on.
In a completely cybernated world, information is the main commodity. The most valuable data is entrusted to couriers - mnemonics. A mnemonic is a person with an implant in the brain who is able to carry gigabytes of information in his head. Main character– mnemonic John Smith – doesn’t know where his home is. He once deleted his memories to free up space in his cybernetic brain. Now his head serves as a hard drive or even a flash drive for others. John, of course, wants his memory back. His boss suggests last time work as a courier to get enough money to get your memory back. Of course, the hero gets into trouble - the amount of information he has taken upon himself is doubled. If you do not get rid of this data within 24 hours, it will die. And on the heels of the hero are professional killers - the Yakuza.
A hero without a past. In a black suit and white shirt with a tie. There is a socket in the head - a connector for wires. Standardization plus aesthetics.
They are hunting for his head - in literally: they want to cut off the head to get to the information. The hero must run to the goal - he must deliver the information stolen from the Farmakom corporation.
With the help of special gloves and a helmet, Johnny becomes one with the technology and penetrates the cyber network, the Internet of the future.
Longo seems to be playing with genre. There are a lot of clichés here: the hero wakes up in bed with another random woman, Mnemonic beats up enemies with a towel handle, villains laughing like hell in cowboy hats, the disappearance of a random savior at the moment when the hero turns away for a couple of seconds, two dunce guards who do not notice the enemies, as well as betrayal love story and a happy ending with a kiss against the backdrop of a burning building.
Therefore, it is better, when you watch, not to take it seriously, but just enjoy the action.
On the one hand, the film looks like complete trash. Here you have a yakuza with a laser from his finger, and a crazy preacher - a cyborg, with a huge knife in the shape of a cross (here I remember Longo’s series “Crosses” - Crosses, 1992). But on the other hand, there is a subtle work with style. Longo knows his stuff. Not everything is so simple - there is something to appreciate here.
A Yakuza with a laser named Shinji - why did he end up missing a finger? U Japanese mafia There is a rule - if you have done something wrong before your boss, you must cut off your own finger. So, this killer, pursuing Johnny, turned his disadvantage into an advantage. The phalanx of the finger was replaced with an artificial tip, from which the villain takes out a molecular thread capable of instantly dismembering the human body (which, by the way, happens from time to time in the frame).
The film also shows the confrontation between the new and the old. The yakuza boss, played by Takeshi Kitano, honors traditions, knows Japanese perfectly, has samurai armor in his office, and even has human qualities - compassion and conscience. And his successor, the killer Shinji, is immoral, dishonest, does not know the Japanese language, and even betrays his boss for the sake of power.
The preacher who kills for money for new implants, brilliantly embodied by Dolph Lundgren, is an appropriation characteristic image a fanatic villain from Japanese animation (see appendix). It’s not for nothing that in one of the initial scenes – the scene of pumping information into Johnny’s head and the shootout – the anime “Demon City Shinjuku” is shown on TV. In general, in the film here and there they watch cartoons, films of the noir genre, etc. Longo once admitted that he loves watching cartoons - this is confirmed by his series about superheroes (Superheroes, 1998).
The theme of modified life and the theme of cyborgs were touched upon by the artist later in the project Yingxiong (Heroes), 2009. By the way, note that the episode is named with a Chinese word that translates to “hero.” Asian influence on technical progress recognized as an artist.
Longo creates an insane city in which the sun never shines (the environment is bad - there is a special dome over the city), society is divided into successful clerks from corporations and beggars from the slums dying of disease.
Characters use a variety of weapons - from huge futuristic pistols, knives and crossbows to grenade launchers. Weapon - important topic for Robert Longo (remember his project Bodyhammers and Death Star, 1993).
Visually, the film is pleasing to the eye. There are stylish, littered plans of the smoking tunnels and streets of future cities. You can see a creepy and interesting shot of severed fingers and vegetables on a cutting board. Or a mountain of switched on TV screens, personifying the madness of the information society.
A shot of a row of TVs with static, in front of which there are empty frames, makes me think - the TV is now in the frame of art. Artist Longo makes something from parts popular culture. In an interview he says that in the late 70s, early 80s art galleries were dead space, the place where he got inspiration was rock clubs and old cinemas. This culture was the artist's day source of nutrition.
One of the scenes shows night club of the future - kitschy hairstyles, crazy makeup, strange people, dancing to a rock aria, androgynous bodyguards, a bartender with an iron mechanical arm etc. The rebels from Lotex also look ridiculous - they wear dreadlocks, tattoos on their faces, they themselves are dirty and unsociable. And at their base they keep an intelligent dolphin named Jones (by the way, this intelligent dolphin was originally a drug addict, but later the scene with the dolphin taking drugs was cut out). Yes, in places it is rampant trash, but it fits into the atmosphere of the film, into the atmosphere of cyberpunk.
You can even try to analyze the film using . Johnny Mnemonic wants to figure out who he is. Recall. Wake up. Ultimately, Johnny is faced with a choice - he learns that in his head there is a formula for a cure for black fever that can save millions of lives.
The key monologue of Keanu Reeves’ character – Johnny: “All my life I tried not to leave my corner, I didn’t have any problems. Enough for me! I don’t want to be in a trash heap, among last year’s newspapers and stray dogs. I want good service! I want a washed shirt from a hotel in Tokyo!” Johnny manages to cope with himself, saves humanity, finds his love - the beautiful chain-mail-wearing cyborg rock warrior Jane (Dina Meyer), and finds out who he is. His memory returned. He stopped being a blind vessel for other people's knowledge.
Johnny's mother turns out to be Anna Kalman, the founder of the Farmakom corporation, who died several years ago, but continues to live in the cybernet. Johnny's mother was played by Robert Longo's wife, Barbara Zukova. Thus, Longo, as a director, is even more justifiably the father of the film hero.
The issue of white collar workers - people from offices - has already been touched upon by Longo in his famous project- “People in cities.” Johnny can be seen as one of these "urban" people.
The film had a very active promotion - accompanying products were sold (T-shirts, etc.), a website was launched on the Internet, and computer game based on the film, and Gibson even appeared at various meetings with players and spectators. However, this did not even help recoup the budget. In wide release in the United States, Johnny Mnemonic grossed $19 million. Is it true, cult movie Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" also failed at the box office.
The film "Johnny Mnemonic" seems to us to be an important milestone. Later, the Wachowski brothers would quote him when creating their “Matrix” trilogy (the surname “Smith”, black suits, cyberspace, Keanu Reeves in leading role– fighting, running away, using meditation, Zen practices, etc.).
William Gibson compared the experience of making the film to taking a shower in a raincoat and trying to philosophize in Morse code. Longo says in an interview that it was a useful experience, but often he did not know how to set up those “damn cameras”, and he had to show what he wanted from the actors on himself in front of everyone film set of 50 people.
The funny thing is that most people from the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet know about Longo only from this film. Here, for example, is one of the typical comments about “Mnemonics”: “ The film was directed by Robert Longo, who besides this did not really make anything else, but his name cannot be forgotten due to this film».
Longo, as a postmodernist, refuses to distinguish between . It brings the previously underground cyberpunk genre into the mainstream. Johnny Mnemonic is a wonderful and atmospheric example of cyberpunk. This is a well-made mainstream movie. But it’s not as stupid as it seems at first glance.
Application:
Images of murderous priests.
- Preacher Carl, the cyborg from Johnny Mnemonic.
- Alexander Anderson, the character was created by mangaka (author of Japanese comics) Koto Hirano. Anderson is an operative of the thirteenth department of the Vatican - the Iscariot organization in the universe of the manga and anime "Hellsing". Negative character.
- Nicholas D. Wolfwood, known as Nicholas the Punisher, is a character created by manga artist Yasuhiro Naito, author of the manga Trigun. A priest who wields a large cross-shaped weapon. Positive character.
