An intimate observation of four people reading.
Benning’s Readers consists of completely silent footage of people reading books. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence, Mouchette by Georges Bernanos, Roy Porter’s anthology on madness, and The Life of the Spider by entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre. Each shot is followed by a quote from the book read by the protagonist.
Reading—even when on the underground—is an activity almost as intimate as sex. Perhaps this is why Benning’s protagonists are all reading in a very private setting: on a couch or in bed. To what extent do we identify with the reader? Is concentrating for so long on a process that is filled with inner experience but immobile to the outsider’s eye even bearable? Can we react directly to what is happening (or not happening) on the screen? These are some of the questions posed by this daring experiment.
Readers
Director: James Benning
USA, 2017. 108 min. 18+