The previous comments for this film have really disappointed me. I'm admittedly quite out of touch with what's suitable for the masses and what's not (and has resulted in some angry friends having endured two hours of what I guaranteed them they would enjoy), but I cannot for the life of me understand how a film like Kill Bill, which can be summarised in two plot synopsis sentences, can be praised for it's creative plot and innovative style, while this film, a stunning meditation on universal themes and challenging in its methods can be called slow and pointless. How can people expect philosophical themes of existence, morality, and individuality to be fully realised in a fast paced film subverted to the Hollywood method. It simply cannot happen.
Revisiting this film, I was most struck by the editing. Which scenes are chosen to fade into another. Connected to this is what Dumont chooses to include in the film at all, and when you think about what the film is dealing with, it is incredibly abstract and precise, not slow and convoluted. Of course we have Dumont's industrial shots, contrasting nature (the garden, serenity) with modern architecture (the building in England, consequently, the scene of a fight in the distance. Dumont is a master paralleler, if he can give away plot details visually and creatively instead of having his characters state it explicitly, he will do it, making the dialogue as pure and distilled as the film itself.
This is a hugely important film. Not only for continuing a movement in film that is either perverted (the Dogmes) or wrongfully seen as self-indulgent and pointless, but for separating the chaff of cinephiles.
5 out of 5 - Essential
Revisiting this film, I was most struck by the editing. Which scenes are chosen to fade into another. Connected to this is what Dumont chooses to include in the film at all, and when you think about what the film is dealing with, it is incredibly abstract and precise, not slow and convoluted. Of course we have Dumont's industrial shots, contrasting nature (the garden, serenity) with modern architecture (the building in England, consequently, the scene of a fight in the distance. Dumont is a master paralleler, if he can give away plot details visually and creatively instead of having his characters state it explicitly, he will do it, making the dialogue as pure and distilled as the film itself.
This is a hugely important film. Not only for continuing a movement in film that is either perverted (the Dogmes) or wrongfully seen as self-indulgent and pointless, but for separating the chaff of cinephiles.
5 out of 5 - Essential