4
SATURDAY
Both because it covers more territory and because its political barbs are less pointed, Patrick Keiller’s Robinson in Space isn’t quite as focused as its marvelous predecessor, London. Keiller’s second cinematic essay again follows university lecturer Robinson (never seen or heard) on a series of journeys through English art, culture, and politics; the “space” in question is England’s green and pleasant land, now chastened by industrial decline and American-style suburbanization. (Robinson neatly links the two when he finds Europe’s largest shopping mall on the site of a former steel works.) Paul Scofield is the voice of the unnamed (and also unseen) narrator, who accompanies Robinson as he wanders a route loosely modeled on Daniel Defoe’s Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain. The static camera wittily records the sights that spur Robinson’s musings, which range across such subjects as Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes, Friedrich Engels, Adam Ant, the Profumo scandal, Poundbury’s neotraditional architecture, and the tonnage of England’s leading portswith special attention paid to Britain’s rich tradition of clandestine sex. Today at 12:30 p.m. and tomorrow at noon at the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Auditorium, 4th & Constitution Ave. NW. Free. (202) 737-4215. (MJ)