If a film documentary is the 'creative treatment of actuality', setting it apart from talking heads, travelogues and newsreels, then Lisippo is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen on culture and archeology. This film does something quite unique to the viewer; through an aesthetic emotion it generates an intellectual emotion.
The director seems to follow a 'metaphysical' narrative, presenting Lisippo as an invisible figure lost in the Universe, a decadent world, perhaps the 'glory that once was'. Clouds compose the geographical maps of Lisippo's journey following Alexander. Two narrators, the Spirit of Bronze (a young mans' hazy reflection on a floating leaf of bronze) and the Spirit of Marble (the shadow of an older bearded man falling on a piece of Marble) lead us amongst the stars, while a subtle film score makes its contribution gradually transforming into a beautiful grandiose Bolero.
If the purpose of art is to emotionally move us, then this film achieves its goal 100%. Historical knowledge is communicated on an emotional level. And it is treated in such a way that everyone can understand it and get moved by it. No more words. You have to experience it.
The director seems to follow a 'metaphysical' narrative, presenting Lisippo as an invisible figure lost in the Universe, a decadent world, perhaps the 'glory that once was'. Clouds compose the geographical maps of Lisippo's journey following Alexander. Two narrators, the Spirit of Bronze (a young mans' hazy reflection on a floating leaf of bronze) and the Spirit of Marble (the shadow of an older bearded man falling on a piece of Marble) lead us amongst the stars, while a subtle film score makes its contribution gradually transforming into a beautiful grandiose Bolero.
If the purpose of art is to emotionally move us, then this film achieves its goal 100%. Historical knowledge is communicated on an emotional level. And it is treated in such a way that everyone can understand it and get moved by it. No more words. You have to experience it.
