Eye For Film >> Movies >> Jo Jo In The Stars (2003) Film Review
Jo Jo works in a freak circus, where the performers stay in dungeon cells. The spotlight is always on her, so high, in the impossible depth of the vaulted ceiling, like a baby angel on a flying trapese.
The monumental building that houses the circus stands on a darkening plain, not unlike the edifice in Mission To Mars. Armour-plated peanut people skuttle in their hundreds to watch the show. One of them comes only for Jo Jo.
The mood of this 12-minute masterwork is German Expressionism, influenced by Sergei Eisenstein. Cinematic techniques and camera angles mimic epic productions and the pressure on the imagination distorts judgement. Even the story, with its sentimental core, is seen as a triumph of the Romantic school.
Others might prefer the mantle of Gothic horror, although genre specificity constricts rather than contains. Jo Jo is all things to all insects, although impressionable cabbage beetles might find Marc Craste's architectural imagery disturbing.
Reviewed on: 15 Feb 2004
