Il Capo

A wonderful sign language has arisen between man and machine in the marble quarries of the Italian town of Carrara. In an unreal-looking science-fiction landscape, a man is directing a mechanical arm towards the marble, which is about to crumble into chunks. This is the same marble that was used to create Michelangelo's David. A power-play is now taking place between man, marble and technology. The sound we hear is actually much too subtle for the impending, descending destructive power. The noise in Carrara, which is located in northwestern Tuscany, must be absolutely deafening, but the sound in the film has been filtered in such a way that all our attention focuses on the movements of the man and the mechanical arm. The camera is positioned so that the jaws of the arm seem larger than the rocks behind it. But in the end, the rocks take back control, filling the screen completely. This time, the man directing is no longer there.