A VICIOUS UNDERTOW

In a film shot in 16 mm, a strange relationship is articulated in the meeting of gazes and dancing, through the sensuous leitmotif of the whistling that introduces them. A Vicious Undertow is built around a female figure of uncertain age, whistling the tune of Nights in White Satin in a bar. The camera glides over her neck, her skin and her lips, and then approaches a second, rather young woman. A man joins them. In a succession of quick shots, the camera focuses on the older and the younger woman dancing a waltz together, then on the man, again dancing with the young woman. Suddenly, the heroine stiffens and makes for the exit. Propelled in the middle of the night onto the steps of an endless staircase, she seems to be trying to escape melancholy or fate by moving through a space that is out of time.