There is little to no nature in German artist and film-maker Julian Rosefeldt’s newest work, Euphoria, although there are plenty of animals. Sheep, white stallions, a moose, a camel and finally, voiced seductively by Cate Blanchett, a massive tiger stalking the aisles of an abandoned supermarket. Are they talismans or mute witnesses; mocking us or looking on with horror as we destroy the world?
Unlike Godfrey Reggio’s experimental documentary film Koyaanisqatsi, which pitted humanity’s ever increasing growth against the monumental power of nature, Rosefeldt depicts a world already unhinged from the natural, already in its death spiral to oblivion. And where Reggio allowed his images – tied unforgettably to Philip Glass’s pixellated tonal soundscapes – to do the work, Rosefeldt leans heavily, often exhaustingly, on the spoken word.
