| |
 |
|
|
Movies Forum Index » International Movies Forum » _Almanac of Fall_
Page 1 of 1
|
| Author |
Message |
| Guest |
 Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:21 am |
|
|
|
|
Finally a masterpiece -- the first I've seen in quite a while.
Bela Tarr's _Almanac of Fall_ is a film that restores my
faith in cinema. The DVD has been around for a while but
I've stayed away from it because I get the impression it
is a documentary style, kitchen sink drama. Nothing can
be further from the truth. Although the film takes place inside
a run-down apartment, the film is shot in stunning color.
Not all the shots are long takes, but there are exceptional
camera motions (some of which seem to defy spatial geometry
and is more intuitively emotional, like the last sequence in
_Blue_) and the camera angles (around, above, even below
the characters -- one of the scenes is shot through a glass
floor!). The color scheme is stunning, often with the
characters in the same scene lighted in a different, stark
monochrome to highlight their emotional colorings. It
reminds me of Kieslowski's _Dekalog 3_, although much
of the latter takes place outdoors. This sort of theatrical
lighting recalls Fassbinder's _Querelle_, not to
mention Greenaway's _The Cook, the Thieve, his wife, and
her lover_. In fact the story of conniving characters making
long speeches to each other (they pair up in all permutations
of two in successive scenes, like _Days of Being Wild_)
is very much Fassbinder-like, but the extended soul-baring
monolog also makes this the most humanistic of Tarr's
films I've seen. One of the long takes, with the mother
character going from room to room turning off lights, may
have inspired one of the most beautiful sequences in
Godard's _Nouvelle Vague_. This is absolutely Eastern
European cinema at its greatest. I ranked it a masterpiece
2 minutes into it. Tarr should make more color films. Watching
it I cannot help thinking of a line of dialog from that other
East European giant of recent years' _Blue_. The girl who
copies music scores say to Binoche's Julie that no one
has a right to destroy something this beautiful. Tarr should
go back to using colors and not discard his remarkable talent
with those.
I still haven't seen _Satantango_. _Damnation_ is a bit
too slick for my taste, but I should rewatch it. Oh what a film
_Almanac of Fall_ is. Highly, highly recommended. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| |
|
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Sun Oct 12, 2008 4:27 am
|
|