Pong
(40-Love)
harpsichord, sound track, DVD video
duration: 25 minutes
written for Annelie de Man † — in loving memory.
scenario: Arnoud Noordegraaf & Paul van der Laan
cast: Paul van der Laan, Gonny Gaakeer
camera: Lennert Hillege
film production: inexcelsisvideo
premiere: January 2004, Film Museum, Amsterdam
Int. prem. Weimar Festival, in collaboration with the Ballet Frankfurt
coming up at Aukso in Tychy, Poland, March 10 2018
and the Prix Annelie de Man, May 25 at Orgelpark, Amsterdam
In Pong, a man is playing a tennis match against his ball-machine. On a Sunday afternoon the man and his wife spent time in their luxurious villa. There's an unbearable tension between the two. They don't speak but do play each other. These two worlds seem like the angry nightmare versus the cold reality, until they start merging in to one another.
score + dvd available on request — drop me a line.
Pong is a film&music project. Apart from being a film, Pong is a composition for harpsichord and tape, which is performed live while right in front of the projection. Because of a unique combination of the live instrument with it's own counterpart and severe electronics on the soundtrack, music and film melt into one another and become one audio visual spectacle.
This production was realized through the inexcelsisvideo foundation, which is dedicated to helping young artists realize film and video aspects of their work.
Pong was performed at the Weimar art festival as a double bill with the famous Ballet Frankfurt of Bill Forsythe in 2004. It was also performed at the Warschauer Herbst festival, and many other festivals and venues including Reina Arte Sophia in Madrid, Rotterdam Film Festival, and venues all over the world, from England to Australia. Harpsichordist Annelie de Man performed it dozens if not hundreds of times. Even in Indonesia. It was broadcast on the Dutch art television channel in 2006.
Pong making of video with images from the set. Video by Danielle van Vree