Climax (2006, 6.2MB, 1:11 min)

We’ve featured Anthony Rousseau’s excellent work here before
this is one of many great pieces you can see on his blog.
I’ve focussed in on this one because I think it’s particularly interesting
in its capacity to be genuinely disturbing in a number of ways over a short spell of time.
Made from appropriated Prelinger footage, Rousseau says it is
Une construction filmique dont la ligne directrice est la
traduction d’angoisses et de peurs infantiles.

‘A filmic construction of which the directorial line is the translation of childhood fears and anguish’

Now, before I read that, I was thinking what Rousseau had done cleverly
& to powerful effect was to deploy many of the tropes of the horror genre
so we fear for, not with, the child.
But then I suppose many of those devices are indeed rooted in
our peurs infantiles & in fact we do both.
Smart. Smart, rich, good.