Phantoms 1986

Directed by Cordelia Swann

"Phantoms was a transitional film for Swann in that it marked a watershed between her previous work in tape slide with its basis in the manipulation of secondary or found images to work using footage shot by the film-maker and with a more discernible narrative structure. Phantoms' often exquisite, atmospheric images of nature, architecture and interiors hark back to the opulence of the earlier work, yet are harnessed into a narrative of yearning and unrequited love through intertitles and the appearances of the male and female (Swann herself) protagonists. The film is an essay in desire using images rather than words. It's like a prose poem, with the intertitles giving it syntax. Swann acknowledges the influence of silent film at the time and especially that of Russian lyricism in literature and film, with its conflation of the landscape with the personal." Sotiris Kyriacou