Neil Jordan (IRL)
Not I
2000
film on DVD, 240 x 180 cm video projection, 14 min., stereo sound, headphones, seats.
Performer: Julianne Moore
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Originally written for the stage in 1972, Not I is one of Beckett's most mesmerizing and disturbing pieces. A woman's mouth is isolated on the stage, locked in place with the rest of her face and body shrouded in darkness. She is identified only as "Mouth." Through a torrential stream of monologue, we discover that the woman – nearing seventy years of age, possibly even dying – has remained silent most of her life, since being thrust prematurely into the world from her mother's loveless womb. Her sudden flood of language is a manifestation of the "buzzing" in her head, an almost involuntary act, an autobiographical stream of babelogue. Significantly, she refuses to adopt the first-person pronoun, insisting on referring to the subject of her story as "she." Reminiscent of many of Beckett's characters, Mouth's hysterical need to talk, keep talking defers the act of self-identification, the awareness of "I" that denotes accountability among the ruins of a fallen world.
As in the case of other directors involved with the "Beckett on Film" project, Neil Jordan seized the opportunity to re-imagine his selected play in the context of modern cinema. Eschewing a single, head-on frame, as would have been the case in the stage version, Jordan instead employs five cameras, each at a different angle around the front and sides of Moore's face, filming it all in one take. Certainly the most radical departure, the multiple cameras allow the director to take a more active and creative role in the editing process.
While the actual content of Not I is unsettling in a familiar Beckettian sort of way, what really gives the work its power to disturb is the unforgettable image of Mouth. Seen up-close for an extended period of time, we become hyper-aware of every little movement: the gnashing of teeth, the rolling and flapping of the tongue, the ebb and flow of saliva, the fleshy gymnastics of the lips. With her body negated and her whole being restricted to this single orifice, Mouth becomes invested with an almost hallucinatory sense of intensity, even carnality - her flickering movements the living synecdoche for an absent body.
Julianne Moore gives an unforgettable performance, each rapid-fire word crisp and clean, her steely tone conveying a fierce bitterness that barely conceals the naked pain underneath. In control of every syllable passing her lips, she is attuned to the undercurrents of her torrential stream as well, from the emotions Mouth is unable to articulate to the truths she's trying to evade. Her brittle laughter after "merciful" and "God" is chilling – sharp bursts of contained hysteria, like release valves for a system under intense and sudden pressure. She appears keenly self-aware, especially when denying the first person: her angry repetitions of "No! . . . She!" are more determined than desperate. One gets the impression that Moore's Mouth wants to detach and objectify her weakness in order to expel it [1].
- Notes:
- This is an edited version of the text "Not I (Beckett on Film Project)" by Allen B. Ruch, published on the Apmonia website. Tim Conley and Allen B. Ruch, eds. 23 April 2003. 25 August 2004. <www.themodernword.com>
Biography
Film director Neil Jordan ( Ireland, 1950) began his career as fiction writer. In 1982, he wrote and directed his first film, the crime drama Angel. Mona Lisa was shown at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, and in 1992 his career was truly established with The Crying Game, for which he won an Oscar for best director. In 1999, he was nominated for numerous awards such as the Golden Globe and Oscar for The End of the Affair. The fourteen-minute film NOT I had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000. In 2001, Jordan was honored with a Doctorate of Literature (honoris causa) from The Queen's University Belfast. Neil Jordan has his own production house called Company of Wolves. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.