It’s Like Being (C’est comme être)

Belgium, 2003. Director Marie France and Patricia Martin.

This hypnotic video has two parts. The first has two women preparing themselves in a mirrored parlour, where they rub cream on their faces and upper bodies. With delicate relish they are absorbed by their self-images, checking their appearance in the mirrors, caressing their mirrored selves. The two women are identical twins. Second scene of the video is set in a chandelier room with sombre red flock wallpaper, the two figures elegantly dance in their masks mimicking each other's activities, but in doing so, quickly morph into different identities, sometimes non-human.

For further reading, see David Bate’s essay Patricia & Marie-France Martin’s C’est comme être.

Past screenings:

Between Stigma and Enigma – London
Sunday 21 May 2006, 17:00 | The Horse Hospital
Screened as a part of the programme ‘Assuming a Pose,’ followed by fashion photographer Jean-François Carly and fashion designer Shelley Fox in conversation with Penny Martin, Editor-in-Chief of SHOWstudio.

The 1st Fashion in Film Festival – New York
Saturday 24 March 2007, 16:30 | Museum of the Moving Image

The 1st Fashion in Film Festival – Arnhem
Saturday 16 June 2007, 16:00 | Focus