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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Film This Week in Film: In a Dream

Posted by Lindy West on Sat, Jun 13, 2009 at 11:52 AM

You really ought to go see In a Dream at Northwest Film Forum this weekend. I review it in this week's paper:

It begins as the story of the aforementioned eccentric artist Isaiah Zagar, living out his semi-idyllic twilight years with his tirelessly supportive wife Julia. The couple buy derelict buildings in Philadelphia (warehouses, apartment blocks) then Isaiah mosaics every surface with broken mirrors, fragments of pottery, bottles, bicycle wheels, junk. Julia looms immense in Isaiah’s work. He has done thousands of portraits of her, he says, some several stories tall. Her face is everywhere, and when he speaks of her and how she loves him it’s with a guileless, silly exuberance. “He can’t function, you know, too well in this world. He’s kind of a rare flower. A thistle, maybe,” Julia says. “I was his reality base, and he was my bird. He flew around.”

Then it gets crazy. In a Dream plays today through Wednesday.

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I lived in Philadelphia (for too long!) before coming to the Pacific Northwest, and the Zagar's were amazing. Julia has this wonderful gallery (Eyes Gallery) on South Street, and someone (I always assumed it was Isaiah) had transformed it into my absolutely favorite physical space anywhere--colored stones and bits of mirrors set into the walls, hallways curving around you like little burrows, little plaster hands reaching out from corners. It was a waking dream...

Posted by attitude devant on June 14, 2009 at 6:57 AM