Feb 14, 2019

"Reruns": The final chapter of Rosto-s Dreamworld.

A rerun by the Dutch filmmaker and animator Lost concludes a four-part film (No Place Like Home, Lonely Bones, Splintertime) that follows members of the rock band (Thee Wreckers) wandering through a rather nightmarish dream landscape that seems to land somewhere between Purgatory and hell. Fusing live–action, animation and music (each film is based on the songs of Rosto's former band, Thee Wreckers), Rosto is the fate of four band members who seem to have settled in the blurred and unforgettable Visi

Splintertime (2015) between consciousness and subconscious, where skitters and skulks seem to have settled into a blurry and unforgettable Visi

, where reruns take place at different stages of his life. The story of Virgil Horn (whose head – tender adieu to its body in a lonely bone - has been carried by the band) is taken up: children, adults, old people, yes, skeletons). Perhaps more autobiographical than previous films (Virgil is noticeably similar to Lost, his creator), reruns explore the rubber line between dreams and memories (dreamy in itself, or, as Lost says, "corrupt" fiction), as Lost takes us on a tour of his reconsidered past. It will be. The result is an emotionally satisfying quest for the complexity, potency, and ultimate lack of credibility of both our memories and dreams.

Rosto and I recently discussed some of the challenges, joys and themes across reruns and tetrology in an email.

Comic Brew: Reruns hit me as the most personal of the four films, inspired by a cloudy fusion of dreams and memories...

Rosto: Everything in reruns is real. It is completely inspired by my dreams and memories. I had this dream city from a very young age. It has various places like my old high school, art school, my studio, and my grandmother's house. The city continues to grow. I could almost make a map of space. There is also this end of the world part, a large ring road that circles the city. There is nothing beyond that and it really is not a very good place.

As visually striking as reruns, the sound seems to be more important, if not equivalent throughout.

Lost: It is not really possible, given the various constraints, as my intention was to build this dream world and invite an internal audience. After all, it is still 2d and the screen. It's not vr, but the sound can bring you and surround you, and make it a more immersive experience.

were each movie based on existing songs - if so, you can talk a bit about that process of translating songs into movies. And out of curiosity, did you use the original recording, or did you go back and re-record the song, and if so, did the movie change the song anyway-

Lost: A beautiful process. I love it because we're back to pure intuitive filmmaking here. Every element of music is there for me to use (or not), so it's a real gorgeous position to be in. (I often recognize this when I see people who aren't musicians struggling to make movies together. It compares to making a new symphony with elements such as the best sound, story, picture, music and mood.

The simplest example is always the following: If you already have a "lead" in the image, you usually don't need a "lead" in your soundtrack (usually the vocals of the song), so you get rid of those in your new composition.

There are a lot of "emotions" and dreams during this process (like when writing songs, this is not a very "brainy" process) and it makes it so great Most of the time, it's about stripping. Kill your loved one. Lose track. But because of Lonely Bones and Splintertime, I actually had to go back to the recording studio to record a new track for a new movie arrangement. This did not change the song anymore (as previous movies have done), because practically all the songs on the album were laid now.

Water has a strong presence throughout the movie, it really enhances this experience of roaming through someone's subconscious, gasping for air, breathing and living In fact, it's a common sensation you get in all 4 movies.

Lost: Water represents the past. The deeper you go, the farther in the past you travel.

Early in the reruns, there's an impressive and haunting scene that sees young Virgil (and young Lost) roaming around an old house. It combines footage of an actual old house, but it adds an effect (it feels nice to have my daughter Rosie also drawing the character in some scenes). At some point, it's like a picture being projected onto the various walls of an old house, and we're well touched by these ideas of memory that we ourselves project into space. I can recall when our family was preparing to sell my grandparents' house. I had a lot of happy time there and the last days of the empty house were very emotional. During those last hours, I myself transported back past through an assortment of vivid memories (probably distorted over the years) from my childhood

Lost: My father took footage of this Super 8 at my grandmother's house in 1974. I was 5 years old. Her house was an important place, so I wanted to portray it. I used this stitching technique to mix some of the old footage together. It was like washing a black window...And slowly the room appeared. The technology has also created these echoes that complement the idea that people are slowly disappearing. The room still exists, but unfortunately some of the people are no more.

Have you always imagined a movie quartet-

Rosto: The same as it was about creating my own platform for my own songs as soon as I finished a place like home, I knew I wanted/had to do 3 or more. Everything in Rock'n'roll is in 4. 4/4 beat. the Beatles... your tow truck.

How much of the final work has changed from your original vision - these seem like very difficult and complex films both technically and conceptually, so I suspect that technical limitations have forced you to change your plans.-

Rosto: No, there was no master plan or concept except for the total number. Thee Tetralogy's "rule" is that the next movie picked up where the previous movie stopped, that it was musically based on the Wreckers song and has the Wreckers (somewhere) character

These movies are super complex to pull off and I sometimes feel like my guys (who have been very innovative over the years) have a lot of fun. I sometimes feel a little frustrated that my team) has never actually got any credit, except for the "Visionary Award" for an unfinished four-part at the Sapporo Festival in Japan. "We've been developing all these great tools, but we just use them to make robot movies. These guys (read: My guys) turned everything upside down and got excited about what else you could do with it. And today we have an app for that " - innit," the audience just did not recognize the quality, because it is all done on computers.”