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Reel Six: Charles Ludlam’s Grand Tarot

Reel Six: Charles Ludlam’s Grand Tarot

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew

Status

Released

Release Date

Jan 1, 1987

Runtime

0h 8m

Genres

Documentary

Original Title

Rollo seis: El Grand Tarot de Charles Ludlam

Production Companies

Mirror on the Moon

Director

Leandro Katz

Description

The New York underground linked the paths of the actor and playwright Charles Ludlam, the superstar of avant-garde cinema Mario Montez and the Argentine artist Leandro Katz. An underground community found refuge in a porn cinema that Ludlam rented at night to stage his theater of the ridiculous. In 1970 he premiered The Grand Tarot, an extravagant burlesque where the arcana became characters and a reading of cards before the performance began established the order of the scenes. Rollo Six materializes that furtive experience, recovering in its formal commitment the inventiveness of chance that guided Ludlam's work. Katz superimposes edited scenes in camera, fracturing the screen through the use of masks that cover the lens and allow him to separately expose each corner of the frame.