Some things are as inevitable as gravity, however much we would like to avoid them: something with which the subtitle of this short film whole-heartedly agrees. In 'Nummer vier', Guido van der Werve presents a contemporary form of spleen: nineteenth-century melancholy, mixed with Dutch sobriety and conceptual timing. Over and over again, we see an unlikely scene unfolding against a picturesque, serene background. A man playing a piano on a raft in the middle of a smooth lake; a choir and orchestra performing a requiem on a ship under sail; someone falling from the sky. Nothing world-shattering, but these are the ingredients with which 'Nummer vier' introduces the important issues: nature, art, beauty, life, death. Subjects that no-one can avoid, neither as a h…man being nor as an artist, but that can be defied - just as gravity.

Netherlands Media Art Institute, Vinken & Van Kamen Read more...