Louise Giovanelli, Still Moving

GRIMM 54 White St

“These four films are each formative for me in one way or another. They connect in personal and aesthetic ways. Grey Gardens is a picture of faded wealth, disorder, and eccentricity. The outfits in Grey Gardens are sympathetic to the wardrobe in Ticket of No Return, an idea of costume as a protective device, or a signal of nonconformity with the expectations of society. In Ottinger’s film, Tabea Blumenschein rather unusually insists on imbibing her way to oblivion; there is no way back to her former life, she is propelled forward and backwards simultaneously. Gummo, a film I encountered at 14, radically altered my perceptions of what I thought a movie could be. It is pure cinema in the Hitchcockian sense, everything irrelevant is stripped out, I seek this in my painted works. Buffalo ’66 is majestic. The iconic presentation of Christina Ricci, saying little, saying only what is necessary, looking essential and compact—for me, she functions as a muse. She exudes what it means to be dignified, respectful and accommodating, even in the face of absurdity and probable danger.”

—Louise Giovanelli