Dripped

Dripped is a short film by French director Léo Verrier that reflects on themes faced by almost every artist: the process of making art and how artists are always inspired and influenced by the work of other artists. One main character, an urban staging and a focus on art with a supernatural twist are the main materials of this short.

Dripped uses several codes from thriller/crime films (chase sequences, theft, corresponding sound and music, etc.) but is centered on art and its effects on the main character. Staged in New York from the 1950s, the film features iconography related to art and its public display, as well as images of historic art (works from Picasso, Gauguin, Munch, Arcimboldo, Van Gogh, etc.). The main character interacts with this world experimenting a number of metamorphoses, changing in aesthetic and pushing the short to a supernatural realm.

Dripped pays homage to US painter Jackson Pollock, whose most famous paintings where produced during his “Drip” period. Pollock moved away from figurative representation and developed a painting technique that involved dripping and pouring paint on canvas, without having any physical contact with it. His actions and gestures were recorded on the canvas, as a way to express his emotions.

Highlights of the short include its playful staging, elements of humor, non-narrative sequence and its reflection on the artistic process.

The idea for the film came from a visit to a museum. The director was hungry while looking at the paintings and wondered how they would taste according to their different styles. Verrier then decided to make a film that would approach art from a more visceral, cannibalistic way, and a reflection on how art necessarily feeds on other art.