Film Archive

Jahr

Camera Lucida 2023
Filmstill Play Dead!
Play Dead!
Matthew Lancit
Diabetes: Matthew Lancit lives in constant fear of the complications of his disease, so he simply anticipates the body horror himself. The result is equally funny and disturbing.
Filmstill Play Dead!

Play Dead!

Fais le mort!
Matthew Lancit
Camera Lucida 2023
Documentary Film
France,
Portugal
2023
80 minutes
English,
French
Subtitles: 
English

If there is one person Matthew Lancit can’t get out of his mind, it is his uncle Harvey. Dark rings around his eyes, pale, blind, his legs amputated. Like Harvey, the filmmaker also suffers from diabetes. He has the disease under control, but one question is always nagging at him: How much longer? His long-term (self-)observation reliably revolves around fears of infirmity and mutilation. He translates the feared body horror into film, stages himself as a zombie, vampire, a desolate figure. Lancit playfully anticipates his potential decline, serving up a whole arsenal of effects which – as video recordings prove – go back to his youth. It is not for nothing that the “dead” in the title is also reminiscent of “dad.” Because “Play Dead!” also negotiates his own role as a father.

Lancit deeply involves his family in his fantasies, letting them become demons and lurch through the living room together. The documentation of his own diabetes also allows us a look at a modern Paris family life with two small children and a partner who usually plays along sympathetically with her husband’s carryings-on. Lancit’s approach deliberately transgresses borders, opens body, soul and front door. The result is a humorous and occasionally disturbing self-testimony.

Carolin Weidner

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Matthew Lancit
Script
Matthew Lancit
Cinematographer
Matthew Lancit
Editor
Ariane Mellet
Producer
Simon P.R. Bewick
Sound
Jules Wisocki
Sound Design
Jan Vysocky, Stéphane Rives
Score
Etienne Nicolas
Broadcaster
ARTE/LA LUCARNE