ANVIL: The Story of Anvil
21 June, 2009
I’ve been AWOL for a while, so I apologize for that.
I don’t have anything particularly meaningful to say about this film, but I had to start back up somewhere. Might as well be here.
I wish that The Wrestler had felt like this film. But I wish, also, that this film would’ve been less… triumphant. I am tired, I suppose, of the overwhelming need for things to be Bigger and Better. Why must everyone have a screaming success at the end? The American Dream? Something like that, I suppose. Even rockers want their white picket fence. It’s sad to know that things have to be such and thus, or no one can be happy.
Forest of Bliss
3 November, 2008
The trees of this forest have burned, and a red kite falls into the river.
The sacred and the profane are fucking in the corner.
Death is beginning to look like life, and a red kite falls into the river.
The film is possessed of a structure and cohesion that make it aesthetically inimitable. The interconnectedness of life- the looping, lyrical cycle of the world, from birth to death to rebirth and so on. There is nothing extra and nothing missing, all of the pieces are present and functioning in their capacity. Every interaction between parts of the whole is meaningful because it is required to be such- there is no differentiation between the parts of life because all of life is sacred. Death is treated with special reverence, but so is the crafting of playthings, the laughter of the elders, the play of children. Kites are constructed with the same care and worshipful attitude as funeral pyres, marigolds are tended with the same veneration as the candles of a shrine. Everything has its ritual and every ritual has its meaning, and through the rituals; be they holy or profane; transcendent existence can be achieved. The rituals possess meaning but they also create meaning where there would perhaps be none.
The film is beautiful in that it is unforced. Everything simply is, everything is allowed to exist and is inter-cut with a degree of grace that makes everything else in the world seem crass. The metaphors are not forced but are rather observed- there is no creation of metaphor, but rather an observant eye to catch the meanings that exist on another plane from the direct interaction with the world. The kites, especially the crash of a kite into the water at the moment a body is gently pushed in as well, could have become heavy handed or overwrought but instead are treated with delicacy. The entire cycle of life is laid bare in the city of Benares, it would seem. Everyone who cares to watch can see the progress of life through all of its stages. There is no hiding because there is nothing to hide- life and death are not private things to be hidden from and to hide away. Life is all there is, and death is only the beginning of new life, so there is no reason to fear the end. The end comes for all and all must eventually address it face to face. If it is present in all things, then it loses any association with fear, it loses all stigma. To face death with humility and acceptance rather than with fear and rejection seems to be a far more lucid understanding of the natural progression of things, and also to be a more mindful interaction with the course of life and the way of nature. There is a cycle, rather than a beginning and an end.
By treating his subject matter with a great deal of reverence and respect, Gardner is able to achieve something that is hard to deny; unflinchingly honest and thus incredibly moving. He says himself that there is a “phenomenon where actuality outperforms imagination, outfables the fabulous.” It is only through careful and deliberate removal of his own ego that he can find this phenomenon. He sets himself aside and allows the events of the world to transpire before him. He does not dictate but simply places himself in a situation where he will see things that will appeal to his aesthetic. There is less artifice here, and more art.
Nuit et Brouillard
19 October, 2008
You cannot film this. Not a recreation of it, not a representation of it, nothing. It can only be spoken of, hushed, and shown through first-hand documentation. You cannot film this horror in a way that does not demean or belittle it. You cannot and you must not. There are some things the camera cannot and should not do.
Man On Wire
27 September, 2008
It is fortunate that Phillipe Petit is a fascinating subject, because the film itself is deadly dull and at times horribly offensive. They managed to make one of the most fascinating and beautiful acts of defiantly public art almost boring, mundane. But, oh, Phillipe Petit, balanced on that wire. If they had simply had him recount his tale, from beginning to end, and played that as a soundtrack over the archival stills and footage, with cuts to footage of the participants as they are now, the film would have been incredibly moving. It is unfortunate that Petit is not macho enough for Herzog, because to see Herzog attack this subject would be utter joy.
Encounters at the End of the World
28 August, 2008
What madness is it that drives the man to conquer the beast or summit the mount? And what of insatiable curiosity, the pursuit of knowledge? Is it the same urge? To know everything, to catalogue it and keep it close in bound paper vaults, is this the same as conquest and enslavement? Is all of this rooted in some form of greed? I do not know. And what of beauty? What of awe? Does submission in the face of beauty overcome the greed? To pursue ones dreams to the logical end… to the actual end… to the place from whence one can only begin…
It is spectacular, I think, that Mr. Herzog finally found his un-looked-upon images, and he was not in control of the camera. Even he was not permitted to look upon his subject. Only a special few are admitted to that cathedral, and even he is not among them.
Possessed
10 August, 2008
I can’t help feeling strange when I watch this piece. It is carefully, even beautifully, crafted. And it scares the hell out of me, because I can see just where I might go mad as well.
I don’t really have words for it, but if you click below, you can watch it yourself.
Possessed on Vimeo.
Surfwise
6 July, 2008
As an exercise in storytelling, the film is exceptionally well done. Put together well, told with the proper highs and lows, following a good give-and-take arc. The people are engaging and interesting and the topic is well chosen and delightfully weird. As a visual and auditory aesthetic thing, however, I have some issues. Not as many issues as I generally have with documentary, which is refreshing, but still some issues. There were some questionable transitions, a few very poor choices musically, and some points at which the FinalCut pulldown menus started to flicker before my eyes in the form of canned effects. And some shots of a beach fire where the color correction had changed what should be orange-red to neon pink. Overall, though, everything was quite smooth and quite lovely. And, more importantly, I really did enjoy it. Which may have partly been due to the company.
Standard Operating Procedure
27 June, 2008
The world would be a better place if Danny Elfman were to suddenly disappear. I don’t wish any harm upon the man, but I’d really like him to just go away.
The film would’ve been fascinating in silence. Mr. Morris should’ve taken lessons from Werner when Werner jump-started his career, learned the art of proper reserve. Not that Werner is exceptionally proper or reserved, but he does know when to hold back, when to exercise a modicum of restraint. Generally.
The Mark of Caïn
7 May, 2008
Sadness and terror mixed with soot and urine, the last dregs of one’s humanity pierced into flesh with a guitar string and a wind-up razor. The echoes of pride are distilled, fermented and rotten, and fed to you in a metal bowl. And you believe that you have succeeded in surpassing your own worth, and you believe you have survived, but I still see the reflections of bars in your eyes.
