May 1, 2008 – June 27, 2008
Daily
Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation's epic video-opera, The Rape of the Sabine Women, is a sprawling, beguiling exploration of classical myth, art history, and film-as-sculpture. Working on the scale of a Cecil B. DeMille production, Sussman and her multinational, improvisatory troupe reinterpret Peter Paul Rubens and Jacques-Louis David's historical tableau of an oft-painted episode from Rome's founding, swathing the antiquarian narrative in the mid-century cool of Michelangelo Antonioni's films. Jonathan Bepler's stunning, non-verbal score of coughs, scuffed floors, butcher's knives, shimmering bouzoukis, and an 800-person choir helps realize the film's full impact.
– Matt Sussman