Ian Smith

Dr. Kyburz

English 1010

March 8, 2012

Christo’s Valley Curtain

The Documentary film Christo’s Valley Curtain (1974), by Albert and David Maysles, is a film about a man named Christo and his artistic pursuit. The film begins with Christo and a woman, hanging a wide unfinished portrait of a mountain valley with an orange, almost sail like curtain hanging between it. After looking at the portrait and what appears to be critiquing it, Christo begins to work on his unfinished piece. The film then pans to other pictures of Christos work and he explains his passion and love. He explains that his love is not necessarily of working in his studio, like one might assume, but for the actual construction and engineering of the art. The next scene then shows Christo at a construction site with people working.  There are materials on the ground and big machinery in the background lifting a man up with a cable at his feet.

                The camera switches from the loud construction site to a quiet golf course. The players can see the mountain valley where Christos creation is slowly being erected. The on lookers make a few comments, some with doubt and others with awe. Specifically an elderly female seemed amazed with the project, but speculated that Christo having a great deal of education could perhaps achieve such a feat.

                Looking down from the edge of the gargantuan wall you see workers moving and working trying to connect the rolled fabric mass on to the cable. The men keep running into issues being so high up with so much material. The film then goes to the base of the valley where Christo is speaking with a man. There is concern in Christos voice as he expresses is worry about the wind blowing while the construction workers are placing the Curtain.

                Back at the construction site they begin to remove the protective cover around the massive rolled up orange fabric. Christo is passionately yelling at the men, making sure they are not damaging the piece. The film then takes us back to Christos work shop, where he is meticulously ironing a small piece of fabric to a canvas. Working through every detail he begins to put the workshop piece together, showing the passion he has for every piece of his art.

Switching back between the construction site and the studio, you begin to see how the project has progressed and some of the trials they are having along the way. Back at the site arguments begin to flare between the artist and the crew, both have a common goal simply a different method of reaching it.

                The men begin to pull the covering down from the massive work of art. Heaving they strain to remove the cover, but there are some snags that they can’t fix from their location on the ground. So an older construction leader decides he needed to take a closer look in spite of the risk. He shimmies down the massive cable and down to the entangled cover. The men on the ground pull the snag loose and the cover finally comes off.

                There is tension in the air as they begin to release the wall of orange. The curtain begins to drop from the corner. Like a wave it sweeps down across the valley unrolling the part adjacent to it, until it stops mid wave by a snag in one of the lines. The men attach a line to try to get the remanding curtain free. Christo is clearly distraught by the set back and tries to encourage the men to pull. The curtain finally loosens and continues its tidal wave across the massive mountain valley.

This is a rough draft so go easy on me. If you want to watch this documentary CLICK ME