Stalemate — Ilarion Contrescu


STALEMATE

Cinematic plot points and dazzling visual scenes are anchored in a moral and aesthetic register drawn from mid-century European tradition; Stalemate examines the hypnotism of intellectual and erotic deception, and labyrinth of interpersonal relationships under the magnifying glass of lockdown.

      

When her intrepid black eyes sunk their blade into his pudding face, a champagne cork popped somewhere. The earth's rotation took a hit, the magnetic poles confused each other. She felt him melt, and he let her feel it.

It was like a new religion, where up was down, and left was right; a religion of excess, people victims of their own evolutionary success.”