Wednesday, January 26, 2005

State of the Oulipian

From a New York Times review of a movie called Army of One:
"Army of One," which opened at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater yesterday, is preceded by the short film "Qaeda Quality Question Quickly Quickly Quiet," whose curious title is explained by the film's premise. The artist and documentary maker Lenka Clayton took President Bush's 2002 State of the Union address (the "axis of evil" speech), chopped it into its constituent 4,100 words, and arranged the results in alphabetical order. The project is so simple as to constitute a prank, but a result is a bracing piece of avant-garde agitprop that provides an X-ray of American political oratory in the wake of 9/11. The film is by turns sobering and funny, as unexpected fragments of syntax emerge from the onslaught of words: "Always, always, always, always, America," the president seems to chant, before engaging in an accidental exhortation: "Let's, liberate, liberty."

1 comment:

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