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German Import | The DVD comes in a standard cleartray jewelcase with 8-pages booklet. Format DVD: Stereo 2.0, PAL, 4:3, All Regions, approx. 8'55 minutes
A melancholy synthesizer-tune underscores a painfully ironic introduction, setting the tone for this Butoh-esque video-performance, in which we get to see Anna-Varney Cantodea, confined to an unfurnished chamber - empty, except for an old bedroom-closet and a dirty enameled sink - singing and dancing to the dramatic music of In der Palästra, a beautiful track taken from SOPOR AETERNUS' current album Les Fleurs du Mal - Die Blumen des Bösen. Partially filmed against the slightly overexposing backlight of the setting sun, a sadly neglected, but otherwise perfectly neutral room seems to transform itself into the padded isolation-cell of some run down, ancient asylum, surreally tinted by the golden light of the sun shining through the dusty double-glassed windows, as we witness Anna-Varney staggering around the corners like an elderly, presumably insane woman, dressed in a worn-out, black winter-coat with fur-collar. Clutching her snow-white, yet dirty hands tightly to a cheap bouquet of pink silken flowers, she is singing and gesturing the words of the music that is apparently forever playing in her migraine-tortured head.
The images are strong and obviously meaningful; the performance - somewhat funny and miserably funereal at the same time - is as intensive (yet fragile) as is to be expected from SOPOR AETERNUS. In fact, perhaps due to the lack of budget the clip seems to have been made with (being somewhat reminiscent of a 50's private home/family-video), this wonderfully avant-garde underground piece conveys an immense feeling of authenticity, yes, even intimacy. It is a bit like watching someone making a secret confession, or like reading the hidden diary of your dead grandmother, who has killed herself only a few years ago in the attic of her dark mansion. The result is both fascinating and deeply saddening.