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Visitors (2013)
Best viewed in fast forward mode
Having loved Koyaanisqatsi and its first sequel, I was looking forward to this film. In case anyone should think I'm unfamiliar with art-house films or anything without a conventional structure, I'm a serious arty film buff and avoid Hollywood or mainstream commercial cinema like the plague. Mostly I watch subtitled foreign films. I was also a Reggio/Glass fan. However, after 20 minutes I found Visitors so tiresome and boring that I fast-forwarded the rest, and in 5 minutes had reached the end. I realise this was supposed to be a trance-like film, but after a short time it was obvious what Reggio had to say (much the same as in Koyaanisqatsi), and it seemed almost like a pastiche of a Reggio/Glass film. It almost seemed as if the film had been made at normal speed and then shown in slo-mo to achieve a mesmeric effect, because to see it played faster didn't appear to miss much. I replayed the opening 20 minutes just to make sure.
Elena (2011)
A masterpiece of social realism combining old and new Russia
I saw this film on DVD and found it absolutely stunning. Apart from the wonderful cinematography, sound and pace, the story was a powerful piece of social realism but also an allegory of old and new Russia - not just post-Soviet Russia, portrayed as displaying the class divisions between the wealthy bourgeoisie and the downcast proletariat, the similarities in modern Russia to the deprivations and petty crime of western capitalism and the unthinking privileged status of the wealthy.
Partly because of the slow pace and the doom-laden symbolism, the elderly man in his elegant home with his servile wife, at the outset I felt a sense of Chekhov. Maybe it was the theme of property and family, of age and inheritance, of a new generation growing up, but I would be interested to know if the director deliberately referenced pre-revolutionary Russia in his film.
The pace enabled the audience to absorb the intense sound that characterised this film as much as the wonderful camera work. Not only the hypnotic music by Philip Glass, but the repeated brief sharp cawings of an uncannily loud rook, the sounds of domestic work, a door slamming, curtains being gently opened... All this built up a great feeling of suspense, almost nail-biting, as we were forced to wait for the outcome of Elena's actions as their consequences yawned in front of us.
The new Russia is clearly reduced to people down on their luck, driven to crime, yet strengthened by family solidarity. The working-class family may be sometimes feckless but there is love among them, and the mother's steely determination to ensure a brighter future for her grandson makes her actions seem not unjustified, in the face of an arrogant husband who treats her as a skivvy and despises her own children and grandchildren. Even though he discovers that he loves his own daughter, their feelings for each other seem to be based on a shared amorality and lack of concern for others.
There is also a dark, ironic and occasionally surreal humour underlying the apparently bleak tone - not just the Viagra, but the woman who keeps getting pregnant, the train delayed by a horse, the Poe-esque crow ...
I have not had the chance to see much Russian cinema but this film has whetted my appetite and I shall be looking out for more, especially by this great film-maker.
A Night in the Woods (2011)
Do not watch this dreadful boring film
One of the worst films I've ever seen. The camera-work was crass and amateurish, the plot non-existent, the characters unbelievable and totally unsympathetic. The scenario presented was ridiculous. There was even a ludicrous scene in a Dartmoor pub where local yokel Mummerset stereotypes told of ancient myths about horsemen and sang folk music as if this is what Devon folk do in the boozer all the time. In your average Dartmoor pub (I live nearby) you'd get Jennifer Saunders or some tourists. The director seemed to believe that black-and-white shots of ancient trees were in themselves menacing, along with the occasional hoot of an owl or cry of foxes. There was no attempt to create a sense of paganism or witchcraft, or anything else to contextualise the fears aroused during the camping trip.
This film was a bad steal from Blair Witch, transposed to an ancient copse on a Dartmoor tor, but with no suspense, no thrills, nothing remotely scary except that anyone had seen fit to distribute this nightmare of filmmaking. It was repetitive beyond belief - just the same old camera shots seen over and over again, and people stumbling around among some rocks - and I kept glancing at my watch wondering how soon it would end.
Fortunately I hadn't paid good money to see it in the cinema, but I resented using up one of my monthly rental DVDs after reading a favourable review in a respected British newspaper and imagining the film would be a bit of spooky fun.
I recommend that no one should waste time or money viewing this film. It's an embarrassment, and I felt humiliated at having watched it!