‘Cinema essayist’ Patrick Keiller (pictured above) returns with Robinson in Ruins, which claims to be a found-footage film made by the titular scholar Robinson and narrated by Vanessa Redgraves in which our hero, to quote the LFF programme, ‘…believing he can communicate with a network of non-human intelligence, and wanting to investigate the possibility of ‘life’s survival on the planet’, … travels to sites of scientific and historical interest, exploring the development of capitalism since the 16th century, and moments and movements of resistance’. Keiller looks to such topics as literature, politics, the financial crisis, mass extinction and philosophy in his essay, which is narrated over images of the English countryside.
Frankly, it’s a total mess. For an essay, there is no distinct hypothesis (what does he mean exactly by ‘life’s survival on the planet’?), no development of an argument and no true conclusion. Keiller flits from subject to subject almost at random. There is little in the way of wit, no characters appear on screen and the narration pauses for endless minutes at a time while we are left to appreciate a foxglove swaying in the wind. Several journalists around me slept through chunks of the film and even Redgraves’ narration sounds tired.
I’m all for artistic creativity and the application of thought and intelligence in cinema, but under one condition – that it remains cinematic, which Robinson in Ruins is patently not. A book, radio play or even the theatre would be a better medium for Keiller to discuss his not uninteresting ideas, which are reduced to utter tedium through film.
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