Hell Frozen Over

A cool, cerebral collage that drifts between fashion imagery and a lecture on ice, rewarding patience with a sly, elusive mood.

Directed by

Bernadette Corporation

Genres

Documentary

Starring

Bianca, Arielle, Lizzi Bougatsos

Overview

Bernadette Corporation describes this work as "A fashion film about the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé and the color white." Produced for the 2000 Walker Art Center exhibition Let's Entertain, this short film employs a range of strategies to approach the idea of nothingness, emptiness, and vacuity, with an eye to how these notions relate to contemporary mass-cultural entertainment. Juxtaposing "documentary" takes on a fashion shoot with footage of semiologist Sylvère Lotringer giving an impromptu lecture on Mallarmé on a frozen lake, Hell Frozen Over maintains an ambiguous stance from which to both critique and celebrate the power of surface.

How it feels

Satirical, cynical, whimsical and eerie. Slow-burning and demanding.

About

Art, media, identity, celebrity

Content

Mild language. No violence, gore or sexual content.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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