maze de boer

6′ 54″ (2003) video by Maze de Boer

“Four men and a game.
The grammaphone is playing.
The wine is poured.
The game starts.
Where does it end?
Do the men have control over the game?”

What do we have here?  Four men playing a game, the record-player is stuck on the start of the album, before the music.  No words are spoken & the tension is high.  I can’t make sense of the title (6′ 54″= six feet & fifty-four inches) & I can’t identify the game, maybe only they know the rules for the glossy black blocks.  A child’s game with adult rules?  The sand-timer is used twice, once to time a minute & the other to keep the sand from timing.  We see one of the men get up & stare-out, sweating, worried.   Do they even know each other?  What man’s fate is in question?  What is in question?  At once a shadow covers the already dim light from outside.  A cause for panic?  The closing shot zooms in on a small window in one of the blocks & one man firmly covers it with another block.  Then we speculate that they are in a larger game of chance.  The music starts.  Is it all one beyond  control, beyond their grasp…?

Aurelio