Absolutely Modern
Well-known to New Horizons audiences, Philippe Mora embodies the role of renown art critic Lord Steinway, whose inquiries attempt to reveal the impact of sexuality, personified by the muses of great artists, on modernism. Steinway’s meandering journey through art in reportage style (Was punk modern modernism?) is foiled by the appearance of a 29-year-old football player who claims to be his son. In this moment, the story shifts towards modernist experiment, in which the least desired outcome is classic structure. Culture turns out to be one big rubbish bin and Mora’s film, intertwining cinema parody with father drama, is filled with the absurd. Absolutely Modern is devoted to the memory of a friend of Mora’s family, the Australian art collector Sweeney Reed.
Philippe Mora
Born in 1949 in Paris, in a family with artistic traditions (his father founded the Australian Modern Art Museum). A director, screenwriter and movie producer. Self-taught. Having completed a series of controversial creative documentaries (among others, Swastika – edited out of home movies of Eva Braun) and educational movies for BBC, permanently joined the Australian cinema as one of the leading representatives of the Ozploitaition stream (genre movies shot in the antipodes, taking advantage of the formula of the Hollywood genre cinema). Occasionally makes movies in the USA (psychological science fiction movie Communion). Mora’s films break all conventions, combine different styles and are nearly always saturated with rebellious, surrealistic humour.
Selected filmography
1974 Swastyka / Swastika (doc.)
1976 Szalony Pies Morgan / Mad Dog Morgan
1983 Powrót Kapitana Niezwyciężonego / The Return of Capitan Invincible
1987 Skowyt III: Torbacze / Howling III: The Marsupials
1989 Wspólnota / Communion
2010 Zagadka Gertrudy Stein albo pół żartem, pół sztuka / The Gertrude Stein Mystery or Some Like It Art (doc.)
2011 Niemieccy synowie / German Sons (doc.)
2013 Absolutely Modern