A post-industrial symphony: Benning’s first digital work and his first film shot outside of the USA.
Seven static shots totaling two hours and filmed in the Ruhr valley create an experimental meditation set in a famous industrial region.
Having been loyal to 16 mm film from the mid 1970s, by the end of the 2000s Benning had ceased using it, exhausted by the difficulties of postproduction and screening. In Ruhr, he captured fragments of reality on a digital camera for the first time, and for the first time that reality was not American. His choice of location was not random: Benning’s ancestors came from the Ruhr valley.
As a director, Benning works with time and our experience of it. Ruhr can be summed up in six images, as nothing really happens in the film. But watching it offers an opportunity to experience—and be immersed in—the energy of the place. Is watching the tower of the Schwelgern coke plant for one hour (this is the duration of the final shot) more of a challenge or a pleasure? There is no correct answer. Any interpretation of Benning says more about the viewer than the work itself.
Ruhr
Director: James Benning
USA, 2009. 121 min. 16+