Living

Summary

Living is part of the five-part series Home, Sweet Home that Frans Zwartjes made ​​from 1969-1971. Zwartjes had just moved to The Hague from Heeze in Brabant, and with this five-part series he made a group of films about the still-empty rooms in his new home.

In Living, the hallways and the living room are filmed. Zwartjes walks through the house together with his wife Trix. In his hand, he holds a camera with a wide-angle lens (5.7 cm) that he uses to film the rooms, himself, and his wife. Already editing with the camera, and without looking through the viewfinder (meaning that he could not see what he was filming), Zwartjes gives a virtuoso example of his abilities.

He seems to dominate his wife with the camera. But because of the grace with which she responds to the voyeuristic gaze of the camera, she comes across as an independent, vital and strong person. Zwartjes, made up in white, keeps wiping his mouth with a handkerchief, suggesting vulnerability and disease.