High Art

Syd works at a trendy photo magazine. By coincidence she meets Lucy, an acknowledged photographer who has turned her back on her career. They initiate a trying love affair.
A woman wearing glasses is inspecting a picture under a magnifier. Photos, photos, photos. Images take up a big part of High Art, both in the story and in the aesthetics. The main characters revolve around photographs, on each side of fame. Lucy Berliner- played by Ally Sheedy in a sensitive but strong and direct way - is the photographer who does heroin, and has withdrawn from the spotlight. Syd is the young, inexperienced woman who wants to be there. I mages manage to bring them together.
Photographs are analyzed, exhibited, decorating both toilet walls as well as fancy magazine covers. Some of them are shown in close-up whilst others flash by or are taken by Lucy as time goes. The pictures create a feeling which makes you want to see more. Who is Lucy? What is she thinking? Slowly the camera moves across the table in Lucys underground den, as if the drugs which are being consumed around it affect the camera in the same way as they affect the body.
The speech of Greta, Lucy's partner, drags like Marlene Dietrichs, slowly the cigarette smoke swirls around the room, and slowly it drips from Lucy's bathroom into Syd's bathtub one floor down. The music is toned down and suggestively leads the train of thought to the yard of an eastern temple. At the same time the arty-farty world of the offices in the skyscrapers high above ground is depicted with biting irony. The pace is higher, but the jargon
is actually the same. Syd is hovering in between.
Lesbian-chic and heroin-chic have been mentioned in the same breath as High Art, but it is mainly about give and take, to use and be used, to be experienced and inexperienced. To grab hold of life's twists and turns, but to be able to let go at the same time.
LINDA HEDIHN

Premiärstatus
Skandinavisk premiär: Medverkande
Ally Sheedy,Radha Mitchell,Patricia Clarkson: Producent
Dolly Hall: Manus
Lisa Cholodenko: Foto
Tami Reiker: Musik
Tracy McNight: Talat språk
English