SOLO DUETS
Director's Statement

The main theme of the piece is a deep sense of remorse, which I tried to describe through the confrontation of Rainer's character with the figure of his younger self, the self of the distant past still untainted by regrets. Wanting to avoid talking puppets, I used the duel on the piano, with Erik Satie's Gymnopedie III as a substitute for dialogue, in which the elder loses his pride and ends up wanting to lean on the shoulders of the younger, his past, the unrecoverable.
J. Feltus, 2005

 

SOLO DUETS
Animator Joseph Feltus describe his award winning stop-motion film
(J. Feltus, excerpt from the Vertigo Magazine, for worldwide indipendent film and video, Vol. 3 No.5 Spring 2007)

I wanted to write a piece exploring loneliness and deep regret. The character in the film is a portrait of myself as an old man, troubled by his becoming conscious of the fact that he has let his life slip from his fingers, without successfully pursuing the elements in life of true personal importance.

When the figure of himself as a young man enters the room, after already haunting his dreams and sleepless hours of the night, he is confronted by the crude reality of his worries.

The nostalgia of early unrequited and overlooked love is presented to him, and a challenge at the piano between young and old is the dialogue of inner confrontation in which he strives to correct the younger man’s accusations of wasted life. But at this he fails to hold his ground, and eventually throws himself shamefully into the empty and powerless hands of the younger, who is merely a sharp representation of the past.

 

The imagery is strongly influenced by the paintings of Balthus, and music of the between wars era in Italy evokes nostalgia and memories of the character’s youth.

I chose Satie’s Gymnopedie III as the piano piece, because I was looking for a simple composition, circular and repetitive in structure, and a piece that might better describe the fact that it is something the character has played since his youth. I wanted the audience to notice when the younger self changes pace in the music, becoming impatient and childish, annoying the elder; and consequently when the elder falls apart in the music, unable to go past a certain point, proving himself no better than the way he was in his youth.

 

SOLO DUETS
Synopsis

Late in his life Rainer's memories are mostly tainted by a heavy feeling of regret, which is amplified by the unexpected visit of his younger self.

Obliquely inspired by the fourth of the ‘Duino Elegies’ by Rilke, a moving story about loneliness, the feeling of loss and the irrevocable passing of time. Illustrated with the music of Erik Satie and with references to the paintings of Balthus, an aging man is visited by his reproaching younger self.

Finita la creatività e la maggior parte della sua voglia di vivere, Rainer viene confrontato dal suo io più giovane, un ulteriore ricordo di una vita piena di rimpianti.

Vidé de toute inspiration et sans désir de vivre, Rainer se retrouve face à lui-même du temps de sa jeunesse, un autre rappel des regrets de sa vie.