EN
"‘Worm’s tail’ (or ‘cua de cuc’ as it is written in Portabella’s native Catalan) refers to the unexposed end of a reel of film – the unseen element. It refers also to the farthest anatomical point from the creature’s eye; the eye from which an object appears strong and mighty, from film’s device to the viewer’s detriment. From the sacrificial butler and his keen philosophy, agog and dying loyally at the side of the private eye of film’s black myth, our title is a readymade and a rhyme (misheard). A language of the margin, a cinema demanding a proper world (truth). We adopt the view of the worm’s tail. The strength or mightiness of the eye’s perspective as generally prescribed is undermined as the worm consumes the waste items of its structure (temporary – as all structures are). It eats the raw dirt of the culture, and from its tail casts pass to establish fresh grounds for all of us. The gift of this bottom vessel, the martyring worm of Portabella’s oeuvre, is to see left, right, up and down; to see to the detriment of the megadome; to demand the value of misheard rhymes, and to quote Portabella on his primary impulse to film: "to take a new critical look at reality... to intervene in a hostile, mediocre, grey and repressive environment..."
Close-Up Film Centre
