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Back in 2003, filmmaker Jason Figgis shot a documentary about
photographer Simon Marsden, The Twilight Hour: Visions of Ireland's
Haunted Past, where he accompanied him to shoots and would document
the man's work routine first hand. Marsden has sadly passed away in 2012,
but Figgis revisited the subject anyways, this time putting an extra focus
on Marsden's pictures, photos shot on analogue film with infrared cameras
that almost always look rather haunting and that often show ruinous abbeys
and castle. Set to this, Figgis talks at length about his collaboration
with Marsden on above-mentioned film, lets some of Marsden's acquaintances
tell anecdotes and a few of Marsden's own writings are thrown in to round
out the film, so one gets a pretty good picture of the man and his way of
thinking - while ironically Marsden himself as good as never appears in
the whole film physically other than a handful of photographs of (rather
than by) him. The result is a film that really gets one
interested into the subject, even if one's unfamiliar with Simon Marsden
and his work, as Figgis as a filmmaker gives Marsden's pictures enough
room to speak for themselves while he has carefully chosen the soundclips
to not overpower the casual viewer with too much information but make this
more of a tribute to Marsden, whom Figgis very clearly admires. Worth
your time for sure, especially if you're into haunting, slightly
other-worldly photography.
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