James Benning’s first film called The United States of America was a 1975 trip across the country, capturing its scenery through a car windshield. This second one also crisscrosses the nation, but without a car, carving it up instead into a series of static shots of just under two minutes, one for each state, presented alphabetically, from Heron Bay, Alabama to Kelly, Wyoming. The names of the places are nondescript, but the images attached to them are anything but, immaculately composed shots of landscape, cityscape and the spaces in between. As we move from A to Z, the images coalesce into a portrait of today’s USA, tracing out its fault lines almost in passing: fenced-off facilities, a river bed running dry, factories and refineries, run-down streets and gas stations, a camp under a bridge. The past is there too, seeping up through the songs and speeches that sporadically pierce the background noise or the motifs that evoke a whole career the clouds, trains and cabins are stand-ins for films, not just states. As always, there’s time for more abstract thoughts too: each image may stand for a state, but representativity is slippery. Which state is more cinematic than the rest?
星空影院桃花影院九九影院私人影院樱花影院星辰影院青柠影院神马影院三妹影院牛马影院金牌影院闪点行动第五季鬼话连篇外星人报到二次觉醒宝贝小情人2副总统第五季机动杀人赛尔号大电影5:雷神崛起老师们哈迪兄弟第一季爱的承诺武圣关公寅次郎的故事23:飞翔的寅次郎疯狂四人行棒球之爱青蛙王子目擊最前線对局巅峰对决第一季白狐情缘危城猫忍是谁来敲门鬼娃回魂7亲爱的寒枝折不断 电影版周末大行动凶火2022东方少年第二季大人物 第一季