Luka's Arts In NYC

The feet of the Monument

The narrative of the film follows the rise and fall of the Empire of a man named Soho Eckstein who bought half of Johannesburg. Soho Eckstein is a greedy man, who is always wearing a dark suit and is portrayed as angry, over worked, isolated from regular society and glutinous. Another of the main characters is Soho Eckstein’s wife. She is represented as often bored and unattended to, which leads to her promiscuous affair with Felix Tittlebaum. In the end though, after Eckstein’s empire falls, he ends up back with her. Felix is viewed as a captive. He is forced to be where he is and wants to escape it as much as possible. His only way of escaping it is by his affair with Mrs. Eckstein. Only when he is with her is he truly happy. I think Felix and Soho represent two parts of the artist, the workaholic and the more natural one. When he is at work he must neglect everything he loves. He therefore is more angry and greedy and is darker of a human. But when he is with the person he loves he is happy and less dark. But only when he can destroy his original corporate work can eh go back to what he loves, in this case it was a woman. I think that woman in the artist’s mind represents art. I don’t fully know Kentridge’s biography so I’m not sure if this is the case, but he might have done this by just saying that this dilemma follows every person. Only when one person can shed and destroy the shackles of skyscrapers and corporate world can one go back to what they enjoy most about life. That is what the big fight between Felix and Soho is. It is the dilemma between these characters of whether a man should be married to his job or the woman he loves.

My favorite part of all the four movies was the monument. When it showed this man bound to be under a burden that he may want to break but can’t because it weighs him down while bound him by the feet I thought this was a great metaphor for how in the modern world often people are forced by the corporate and capitalist world to pursue careers that are more profitable instead of more enjoyable. People seem to ask themselves nowadays what is a better career choice instead of what they truly enjoy doing. And the monument represents the mistake the man has made by focusing on this career. Now he is shackled and bound, never to be able to pursue his true dreams and to only be carrying the burden of a job he doesn’t enjoy.