Here's another hidden arthouse gem, an international production waiting to premiere at global spring festivals and threatened to go under, but now given an opportunity to shine online.
"A Muse" revolves around an aspiring dancer and a documentary filmmaker who find themselves swept up in the chaotic life of a volatile young man obsessed with the artist Yves Klein. The film, written and directed by Jimmy Bontatibus (Seattle, USA), takes us across Europe in three languages—German, Romanian, English—and across three timelines.
The cast introduces Hamburg's Merisha Husagic (who already worked with director Bontatibus on "The Life of Flowers" four years ago), Miriam Rizea (who you might remember from "Toni Erdmann"), and Rares Andrici (from Cristian Mungiu's "Graduation").
"A Muse" takes us on a journey from Bucharest to Hamburg via Paris, intertwining timelines between 1961, 2015, and 2018, and drawing on the history of Nouveau réalisme. Bontatibus traveled between Germany and Romania over the four years of making "A Muse," working with crews and actors of varied cultures and languages.
The film evolves with each new collaborator, adding to the mix and the many political shifts taking place throughout the world, making their way into the fabric of the footage.
The one constant throughout the process was a reckoning with the artists that came before us;
the film is by and about young artists who grew up with unfettered digital access to the full history of cinema and art, and deals with how a deluge of artistic influence can be both a boon and a burden—when you've got entire histories of literature or film loaded into your brain, how do you make something that is "yours"? "The film could have only been generated by someone who grew up with the internet—when any piece of film, music, art was a click away, and tracking influence between artists could be done by falling down rabbit holes on Wikipedia. The same interest in networks and drawing connections was applied to the characters and how they interacted with one another," says Bontatibus, listing his own
cinematic influences:
All of the films of John Cassavetes. Claire Denis' "Beau Travail" & "Friday Night". Patrick Wang's "In the Family". Patrice Chéreau's "Intimacy" & "Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train". Mike Leigh's "Naked". Lucian Pintilie's "The Oak". Arnaud Desplechin's "Kings & Queen".
In "A Muse," a web of connections between characters is spun together in ways that often only the viewer is privy to. The film bends time and place to mold parallel narratives between people in different periods, each with disparate cultural backgrounds, genders, agendas, and desires—with the hope of finding commonalities between one another.
Commenting on this moment in time for an indie filmmaker, Bontatibus says:
"After a lengthy post-production process, our festival timeline just happened to align with a global pandemic. Who saw that coming? And it’s not just us—filmmakers who have spent years of their lives preparing for their moment are getting clobbered all over the world. Film festivals are canceled until they’re able to pivot to online. When festivals resume, submissions will be doubly saturated, and no-budget movies without representation are at exponentially more risk of falling through the cracks than they already were. It’s tempting to continue to wait around—we want that festival pedigree as much as anyone!—but every day, increasingly, the writing is on the wall. So we’re releasing 'A Muse' online for a two-week engagement. And since nobody knows who we are, we’re releasing it for free. It’s not what we envisioned, but this is what independent film should be about: DIY art that bypasses the gatekeepers and is brought straight to anyone who is interested. We hope others will follow suit—it’s a devastating time for our industry and the world at large, and it would be untruthful to say that we aren’t accruing losses on the film in advance. But the content void presents a unique opportunity, and we hope that viewers will give us a chance."
Catch "A Muse" for free on Vimeo beginning June 12th, for two weeks. Watch the trailer and catch the film stream here.
film still: Mersiha Husagic in "A Muse"
