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Cities Of Gold And Mirrors

Years before ‘Spring Breakers’, Cyprien Gaillard made this haunting 16mm film documenting American students drunken holiday hedonism against the back drop of a brutalist Cancún hotel complex in Mexico. Named after the French-Japanese children’s cartoon, the film shows buff and bikini-clad white American chugging tequila against the Mayan-like architectural background interspersed with images of dolphins. This ambiguous film combines the ruins of ancient Amerindian culture with the failed hopes of 20th century modernism. Gaillard’s latest 3D film ‘Nightlife’ also drew on the strange remnants of history, in particular the legacy of the 1936 Olympic Games held in Nazi Germany.

  • Francesca Gavin