Edouard Salier - Flesh (2005)

----> cest ici que ça se passe <----


PLOT SUMMARY :
The Empire unveils everything but sees nothing. Its enemies idealize everything but tolerate nothing
For some the earthly orgasm of virtual whores ; for others the eternal orgasm of 70 heavenly virgins.
What if it all came down to flesh?


COMMENT :
Flesh assembles Americans and terrorists. As corrupt, libidinous and excessive as religious fundamentalists want to present it, America the superpower is filled with such fervour and energy that it manages to feed its own aggressions, containing within itself a violence,
inherent to the very foundation of its Empire.
Flesh shows how the kamikaze planes have only added fuel to the flames and stirred the arrogance and imperialist mind-set of a superpower that is full of contradiction : the airliners attacks have finally no effect on the town; on the contrary, they only increase the spectacular
decadence they are trying to knock down. The more the planes attack the town, the more debauchery, gigantism, images of violence and the hellish town proliferate.
Flesh does not intend to take sides for or against the United States or Islamic fundamentalists, it’s a reinterpretation of the events of September 11th and its aftermath, which saw the reassertion of a superpower and increase in the hegemony and military supremacy,
accompanied by the rising importance of morals and puritanism, on the one hand; and on the other, a radicalising of the fight against the decadent West, with the promise, supposedly written in the Koran, of better days in Heaven.
Flesh plays with the ambiguity of the two camps and doesn’t favour any side. The text that opens the film contains a reference to the 70 virgins promised by recruiters as a reward to terrorists (the concept comes from an ambiguous section of the Koran, that has lent itself to much polemic in Islam regarding its translation and interpretation).
Though the section of the Koran lends to confusion and obviously needs to be handled with care, its abusive usage by the recruiters of suicide bombers is without a doubt. These naked girls are also the fantasy of a kamikaze before he hits the towers, thus the decadent West he intended to destroy is also a source of desire, pushed by a religious fundamentalism that attacks the West all the while playing on its attraction.
The film does not judge but points out the ambivalence and internal contradictions of the two powers, and how the erroneous or deceitful point of view on their own moral state can engender and maintain a permanent war.
- source : http://www.strikebackfilms.com/

interview sur le site de karl zero

Après quatre ans passés en Arts Graphiques à Pennighen, Edouard Salier rencontre Doctor L (producteur des premiers disques d'Assassins) et conçoit les pochettes de ses premiers albums solo, puis son tout premier clip, Mountains. Véritable boulimique de l’image, Salier multiplie depuis à un rythme effréné les expérimentations graphiques et audiovisuelles via des courts métrages, clips, habillages tv, installations et VJing… Il est également membre de Kactus Hunters, collectif son et image formé en 2001 par Doctor L, et du collectif d'artistes Art Posthume. Après le succès international du diptyque Empire et Flesh (Venise, Sundance, Annecy, Clermont-Ferrand, Mar del Plata, Caen et plus de 100 autres festivals), Edouard Salier prépare actuellement son premier long métrage.

Dès Que Pasa?, Salier impose un style et un ton : spontané, sexy et novateur, un savant mélange entre rafistolage et virtuosité high-tech. Depuis, avec un appétit visuel insatiable et le souci constant de se renouveler, Salier bâtit incontestablement une toile étrange dont on commence à distinguer une partie. Il naît de son bric-à-brac visuel un art du collage et du bricolage qui mène tout droit à une réflexion sur le statut même de l'image, doublée fascination pour la manipulation. En 2005, tout en commençant la préparation de son premier long métrage, Salier réalise un diptyque ravageur sur l'empire américain à travers deux courts, Empire et Flesh, qui atteignent un équilibre idéal entre réflexion militante et recherches graphiques innovantes.