| I love clowns. Those words are seldom uttered these days, but I love them. I imagine that it all stemmed from getting to do a workshop at Sunnyvale Junior High with the great Bill Irwin and the Pickle Family Circus when I was something like 5 years old. In the tradition of Bill Irwin, there is a German clown named Reinhard Horstkotte. He is not an ordinary clown. He is a clown in the world. Still with the red nose and the funky shoes, but he is not tied to the circus ring or Vegas Cirque auditorium, or at least not in the lyrical and breath-takingly poignant documentary Laugh Clown Laugh. Reinhart is a philosopher, and physical interaction within a world of his creation is his stance for defense. The interview susses out the message of his life, not unlike Aaron ben Jacob's message of joy not as the goal but as a road to the goal. It is a beautiful message that he speaks in the interview, but it is an even more impressive thing to see him move throughout Berlin as his clown self. That portion of the film, the last few minutes, are as powerful an expression of the power of movement to entertain, and joy to overtake the world in times that seem distant from the simpler times, makes this a short doc that I can't recommend highly enough. You can find more, including lesson plans, at the Global Oneness Project |
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Klaus at GunpointA Film Journal dedicated to all film.A segment of Office Supply Publishing. Archives
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