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Tectonic PlatesA review of the film by Robert LepageDateline: 27th October, 2003As part of the Barbican's support for their production of The Far Side Of the Moon that by Robert Lepage, they have also run a short season of his films. The last of these is a fascinating mix of theatre and film. Tectonic Plates started life as a stage production and this film version combines work on stage in front of an audience with filmed sections from around the world. The plot travels from Montreal and touches New York, Venice, Paris and Skye. The main themes of the film (and play) are the inability of people to communicate, the nature of identity and possibly the grimness of life as a whole. Water is used as a major symbol and often creates a surreal effect. For example, lectures are delivered and analysis is carried out in a pool shin deep with water. While that had to suffice for the play, in the film it allows Lepage, who also stars as the transsexual Jennifer, to indulge his love of beauty. Whether looking at the sea or Venetian canals, the camera work is wonderful, as it is so often throughout the film. The plot largely consists of lonely people searching for those that they have lost. The main protagonist, Madeleine (played by Marie Gignac) seeks assistance of a deaf mute librarian (symbolising failure to communicate) to find a man that they have both loved, Jacques. At the same time, a sailor is looking for Celine Bonnier as his lost daughter, Constance, who is now a drug addict on the point of death. It is Madeleine who had travelled to Venice to commit a beautiful suicide that finds her. The other pair that are separated are the composer Chopin and his lover Georges Sand. In their case, it is because a portrait of them has been divided into two separate paintings to enrich the owner. With great wit and original visual ideas, Lepage explores many ideas and themes. His strength is to ask serious questions without necessarily answering them and to ensure that the whole is challenging but also satisfying to the senses. Articles Indices:
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