Cate Blanchett loves you. Yes, you read that correctly, unbeknownst to you the acclaimed Australian actor has announced that she loves you. As a matter of fact, she loves you in many different ways and she’ll tell you just that in Marco Brambilla’s latest video installation entitled ‘The Four Temperaments’.
With a runtime just shy of three minutes, Brambilla’s short film compiles different clips of Blanchett repeating the same three words: “I…love…you”. With only her face in frame, scenes are sequenced into four synchronised images that appear on-screen simultaneously. Each declaration of love is directly addressed to the viewer and delivered with conviction. Clips play over one another to form a polyphonic chorus.
It becomes apparent through her demeanour and verbal delivery that Blanchett is performing four sets of distinct character types each denoted by yellow, red, blue or green filters. The differing personality temperaments that she plays are based on the works of Greek philosopher, Galen. As more characters are introduced the pacing of the film accelerates, charging sharper emotional shifts across the spectrum of the four temperaments.
Towards the film’s conclusion Blanchett interrupts the chorus to confess she doesn’t love you with the same directness she told you that she did. The viewer is now placed at a crossroads: they can either continue to place the chorus of “I love you” at the centre of their attention or become consumed by the discordance of Blanchett’s “I don’t love you”. At some point in life, the vast majority of us will have to choose to either to weather our own relationship’s storms or see the bond we’ve forged shatter in its fury. There’s no universal guide for which option is the better one to take, but as Tennyson’s famous aphorism goes “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”.
The Four Temperaments (film stills), Marco Brambilla, 2020. Courtesy of Marco Brambilla Studio
Cate Blanchett stars in Marco Brambilla’s latest video installation entitled The Four Temperaments now showing at Michael Fuchs Galerie through to November 14 2020. Download the Augmented Reality Version from September 11 via the Acute Art app.