The Painting

The Painting intercuts shots of traffic navigating the old-world remnants of downtown Bern Switzerland with details from a 15th-century altarpiece “The Martyrdom of St. Hippolytus”. The Painting intercuts shots of traffic navigating the old-world remnants of downtown Bern Switzerland with details from a 15th-century altarpiece “The Martyrdom of St. Hippolytus”. The painting shows the calm near-naked saint in a peaceful landscape a frozen moment before four horses tear his body to pieces while an audience of soigné nobles look on; in the movie’s revised version Beavers gives it a comparably rarefied psychodramatic jolt juxtaposing shots of Gregory Markopoulos bisected by shafts of light with a torn photo of himself and the recurring image of a shattered windowpane. (J. Hoberman The Village Voice)