Movies News
Update · WALKING ON WATER
12:30 2:35 4:45 7:00 9:15
Opens Friday, May 17 for an ongoing engagement
DIRECTED BY ANDREY PAOUNOV
Christo and his late spouse/associate Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009) created among the most visually breathtaking artwork installations of the postwar period, together with Running Fence in Sonoma and Marin counties (1976), Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin (1995), and The Gates in Central Park (2005). The Floating Piers—an formidable effort to create the impact of strolling on water through a 3-kilometer walkway over Lake Iseo in Northern Italy—is Christo’s first large-scale mission since Jeanne-Claude’s passing (the 2 conceived of the concept collectively). Filmmaker Andrey M. Paounov has uncommon entry to Christo’s course of, from inception to completion of the set up: thorny negotiations with native authorities, engineering challenges, crowd management, logistical nightmares and the sheer pressure of nature, captured by breathtaking aerial views and fly-on-the-wall cameras.
Presented with help from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Fund
USA / ITALY 2018 100 MINS. IN ENGLISH AND ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES KINO LORBER
Reviews
“Few artists deserve the moniker ‘maverick’ as much as Christo, and few documentarists are as attuned to the intersection of visual delight and strong personality as Andrey Paounov (THE BOY WHO WAS A KING)… WALKING ON WATER chronicles Christo’s glorious 2016 project in which he unfurled a golden path across Lake Iseo in northern Italy, designed to let people literally stride across the gently undulating surface. The artist’s forceful character does battle with technology, bureaucracy, corruption and the elements, resulting in an installation of stunning beauty and a documentary that delights in capturing the act of creation.”
– Jay Weissberg, Variety
“Rollicking. Christo is his own force of nature. The 83-year-old Christo strikes a fascinating figure, a tireless, uncompromising artist who thinks his work is, on the one hand, totally useless, but shows childlike joy when things finally work out.”
– Mark Peranson, Cinema Scope
“[A] rich, visual record of monuments to transience.”
– Andrew Karpan, Nonfics
“Watching the eccentric luddite Christo bringing the installation to life is like watching a magician perform a drawn-out magic trick.”
– Bedatri D. Choudhury, Hyperallergic