Watching: Tarch Trip

Overview

A film like an Impressionist painting; the kind of paintings to have titles like 'urban view from the artist's studio'. The film is largely set in the film-maker's home and the street in the provincial town of Aichi where he lives. Minor everyday incidents are observed poetically; the melancholy mood of the images is boosted by serene electronic music. There is no dialogue; the sound track only comprises streets sounds as well as the music. Loose, almost nonchalant impressions of the street or of cloudy skies are juxtaposed with posed, almost photographic mildly homo-erotic portraits of friends of the film-maker. Tarch Trip is made up of fragments of a cinematographic diary, which are however not edited chronologically. Two periods alternate. One is characterized rain and dark cloudy skies. The other is sunny and repeatedly accompanied by three friends