Johannesburg the Second Greatest City after Paris is the first in this series, and was made from twenty-five drawings. The sound-track includes music by Duke Ellington. It introduces the viewer to ...
Johannesburg the Second Greatest City after Paris is the first in this series, and was made from twenty-five drawings. The sound-track includes music by Duke Ellington. It introduces the viewer to the characters central to most of Kentridge's subsequent films in the series. Soho Eckstein is a prosperous Johannesburg property developer, equally indifferent to the well-being of his workers and the emotional needs of his wife. He is portrayed frontally, wearing a pinstripe suit, sitting behind his desk where he guzzles food and drink, or stares bleakly at the destroyed terrain of the mining landscape. In contrast Felix Teitelbaum, Soho's alter-ego, appears nude, seen from behind, gazing into the landscape. His water-soaked, sexual fantasies of Mrs Eckstein contrast powerfully with the aridity of Soho's business, and with the faceless crowds of African miners who advance and retreat on the edges of Soho's world. The title of this film is ironic: the wasteland it depicts, in the land and in the emotional relationship between Soho and his wife, is the result of the growth of Soho's power, crudely analogous both to colonialism and to capitalism. Made just at the time when international pressure on South Africa to abolish apartheid had reached its greatest intensity, the film is a reminder that western societies were once built on similarly inhumane principles. Kentridge's multiple layers of complicity and responsibility allow for no simple readings.
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anti-semitic??? ignorant? You are aware that William Kentridge is himself jewish, and a south african? Not to mention that he is an internationally renowned artist... This was his first film in a series of animations about Soho Eckstein, the industrialist, and Felix Teitlebaum, the romantic.
Autoshare makes certain YouTube activities public on the services you choose. Select only the services you are comfortable with - like Facebook, Twitter, or Google Reader - to let your friends know what you like on YouTube. You can turn Autoshare off at any time.
You are aware that William Kentridge is himself jewish, and a south african? Not to mention that he is an internationally renowned artist... This was his first film in a series of animations about Soho Eckstein, the industrialist, and Felix Teitlebaum, the romantic.