Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000

Jonah

Was thinking of Jonah – marvellous Jonah - and wondered of the actors whose characters I have grown to love after all these years and the Berger-Tanner collaboration which, I suppose, was the guiding spirit behind it. I would so much like to find out about these people – what it was like creating that wonderful cinematic moment, how they felt about it at the time. To that end I decided to do something dedicated to the enduring spirit of Jonah who will be 25.

Watching our re-copied video which is fraying at the seams, jumping, sputtering, colours washed out, still I was struck by the enduring quality. This time when I saw it I was struck by the curious sexuality – there’s Madeline, the Tartaric Yoga woman with fiery red hair who wants her lovers to hold back their semen; there’s Marguerite, the truck farmer who likes to sleep with the immigrant labourers living in the bleak hostel down the road; there is Marco, the teacher who wants his sweet girlfriend, Marie, to invite round one of her prison mates so they can have a ménage à trios; and there’s Mathilde, Jonah’s mother, who abhors an empty womb. Yet none of these characters are in any way gross or obscene. They are innocent explorers journeying through their sexual fantasies in an honest, gentle and humane way. Compare that with today’s sexual allegories – so dirty and dire, full of moralistic undertones of dreary Luther.

11 December 02