Work of a rare quality..Rino Pucci takes you by the hand..
Written by David WhiteRino Pucci is a dark horse. A quiet Italian, he has been working as an editor for one of Italy’s biggest newspapers for a decade. He also happened to be a Hinterlands workshop student, and one evening he quietly showed Ben and I his latest work. Impressive is what it is, unusual and rather unique. All things we like. The man has skills. Take a few seconds out of your day and watch this piece:
“Hands are somehow sacred organs. That’s why a hand surgeon is a sort of shaman. Not only does he fix body parts, he heals the tools people use to connect with the world. It’s an intimate bond between two hands – a broken one, and a healing one. If you’re not faint-of-heart, watch “7000 hands” and shadow Dr Maurizio Musso – a senior hand surgeon in Milan, Italy – in a day of ordinary bravery following his train of thoughts.“7000 hands” is a character-driven audio slideshow, but in a very peculiar way. First came the pictures, taken by Rino Pucci in the operating theatre. Then Dr Musso gave an interview to Maria Giulia Ganassini, sharing his most personal feelings related to surgery. His thoughts have then been rearranged and concentrated into a text with many similarities to a theatre script. And finally the audio: a stream of consciousness through the voiceover of Robert Topping mixed with the dreamlike atmosphere of the ambient sound.”[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/23626738[/vimeo]
Discussion (3 Comments)
A really interesting piece with a beautiful theatrical feel to it, I liked the photographs and brilliant pace and use of sounds with the interview! But….I was surprised to see in the credits that the audio was a voiceover of thoughts by the hand surgeon. As soon as I read that fact – I’m not sure I trusted the words as much as I had when I had thought that it was the hand surgeon speaking. I think the pace and tone of the voice was a big factor in the feeling of the piece so I’m not sure the manipulation of that factor works for me. In my opinion – if it’s photographs of this wonderful hand surgeon and they are intimate, then I want to here him saying it.
Hi Mike, I’m the hand surgeon. IMHO there are several good reasons for the voice “dubbing”. The first one is my rotten english (as you can read…).
The second one is the poor quality of my voice. I wish I had a voice like Robert Topping’s. The third, artistically more important, is the “foreign” sounding of every non-english accent. This would have made less intense (or perhaps even ridicolous) the pace of the speech and the “stream of consciousness” mood of the presentation. And I think that this mood is great part of the feeling of the whole work. Rino Pucci surely wanted to enrich the surgical set with a certain theatrical feeling. This is the difference between an artist (Rino Pucci) and a good craftsman (me). Anyway, be sure, the thoughts that R. Topping whispers so intensely are totally mine. These are some of the things I think about my beautiful job.
Thanks for taking the time to reply Maurizio. It’s good to hear that these really are the thoughts of a hand surgeon. I suppose this photofilm was asking a question in my head about the difference between a journalistic piece and a piece of art. A lot of the pieces that I see I can trust immediately because of the all the reasons this piece uses dubbing – the slightly less good english (although I am sure yours is excellent!), your accent etc.. This realism in the piece will allow me to judge the authenticity of it straight away. I guess I’m used to that with photofilms so it is interesting to see a piece like this – stirs my thoughts!