
Oui Non
Passages
Based on improvisation, Oui Non film documents the creation of an acted story between young actors which becomes more real as they experiment. While the film tells a classic tale about the encounter between a boy and a girl, it also provides radical criticism of traditional narrative forms. The film was shot on location in Paris and pays homage to the myth of Parisian romance, the French Impressionists and French cinema. The result of a confrontation between reality and the false representation of fiction, the film is neither drama nor documentary. Jost has noted that Oui Non represents a very conscious farewell to the filmic medium.
When Jon Jost began working exclusively with digital video in 1996, the abstract and experimental elements became increasingly important in his work. This experimental piece resembles an enchanting moving painting in which color shifts in fascinating turns. Jost’s work recalls the psychedelic experimentation of Pat O'Neil, Scott Bartlet, the Whitney Brothers, Stan Brakhage, Al Razutis, Peter Rose, Bruce Connor and Kurt Heyl, as well as the more pastoral approach of Peter Hutton and Nathaniel Dorsky. Jost previously experimented with this approach in his early short films Portrait and Repetition and City, as well as in his first features Speaking Directly and Angel City.