Mahagonny

As a tribute to its ongoing commitment to experimental film, the Walker screens a newly restored version of Harry Smith’s final work and magnum opus: Mahagonny. This epic four-screen translation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny has been remastered to 35mm. Ten years in the making, the film transforms the opera into a numerological and symbolic system in which images are divided into categories of portraits, animation, symbols, and nature to form the palindrome P.A.S.A.N.A.S.A.P. The original film was composed of four 16mm images tiled together onscreen to form a composite synched to the opera. Kaleidoscopic in its effect, the piece allows the viewer to get lost in pictures and movement as portraits of key avant-garde figures are intercut with works from Robert Mapplethorpe’s studio, New York City landmarks of the era, and Smith’s visionary animation. An allegory of contemporary life, Mahagonny explores human needs and desires amid the rituals of daily living. 1980, U.S., color, 35mm, 141 minutes.