The Four Times
2010 Directed by Michelangelo Frammartino
Synopsis
In the backcountry of southern Italy’s mountainous region of Calabria, an old shepherd leads his flock to pasture along paths in the hills which have fallen into disuse. Every morning, the church housekeeper trades a handful of the church’s dust for some of the shepherd’s fresh milk. Every evening, the elderly shepherd dissolves the "magic" powder in water and drinks this mixture to remedy his aches and pains. One day, he doesn’t show up for their trade. The next day, he dies in his bed as his goats keep vigil over his passing. A kid takes its first steps, but he is slower than the rest of the flock and falls behind. He falls into a ditch in the middle of the forest. Unable to climb out, he bleats for help, but neither the new shepherd, nor his dog, hear him. When he finally emerges from the ditch, he finds that he is alone. He wanders aimlessly until, as night begins to fall, he stumbles onto a majestic fir tree in which he seeks shelter.
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Listen closer.
The wind still blows.
The wind is the world in motion. We are the world. We are the wind.
We are the bells.
We change every day. We are not stone.
We are flesh. And blood. And fur. And dirt.
We await. We adore. We transform.
Time never stops.The wind still blows.
It gives us breath, it carries our words. It carries us.
It chimes the bells.
The bells are life. The bells are home.
We tend to the bells, and the bells tend to us.
Nature and routine. An eternal symbiosis guiding us into the unknown.
Both with the same goal, reward, curse.
Life and death. Flesh and blood.
Winner signaled by brief panic, then death.… -
I read that it was a visual poem to the Pythagorean idea of the soul migrating from man to animal to plant life. Whoa. That's a film for a Sunday morning viewing if ever there was one. I thought I would have to come prepared with knowledge of pre-Socratic philosophy, not my strong suit.
I didn't really want to work that hard. I preferred the idea of wanting to see it at some point in my life, secretly hoping that that point might never turn into a concrete now. But alas I noticed that it was expiring on Netflix very soon. It had to be done. I picked a morning time slot and came to it with plenty of caffeine.…
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Film #13 of Cinebro's "Long Live the New Flesh" Challenge
I throw the word "meditative" around a lot when describing movies. It's not until I saw "Le Quattro Volte," however, that I realized how empty of a descriptor that is.
"Le Quattro Volte" is a dialogue-free story set in the steppes of Southern Italy. Based on the "four realms" of Pythagorean metaphysics (animal, vegetable, mineral, and rational/intellectual), it gives us four interconnected stories charting various stages of birth, death, and reincarnation. Traditional plot devices are replaced by quiet contemplation. A lot of time is spent observing the daily life of a goat, for example, or the felling of a tree. You may be rolling your eyes already, picturing a fat…
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After watching Le Quattro Volte it was early evening. I walked outside and pulled some small splits from our wood stack in preparation to build the evening fire. I brought them into the kitchen, laid them near the stove, and gathered some dry kindling like I always do.
I opened the stove door, and delicately shoveled the top layer of fine ash and dust and carefully deposited it into the ash pail beside the stove like I always do. The ash pail will later be emptied into an air tight ash can in the driveway, the contents later used on our driveway on icy winter days. The removal of the ash reveals a small bed of glowing embers, gently releasing…
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When i started i didn't know if i had subtitles hard-coded or not, so i thought i'd just play the film and if it turned out it didn't i'd get up and find them. Little did i know there is no dialogue in this film whatsoever. Just my luck, i didn't want to get up anyway.
An atmospheric contemplative film that you can simply sink into. I feel like shit today and this is exactly what i needed to lull me into a calm state of mind. Moving at glacier pace Le Quattro Volte has a great deal of ''cycle'' analogies, even the first scene returns to us near the end. Each ''turn'' is told from a different perspective; man,… -
Meditative is normally a polite way of saying a film is crushingly slow and boring, yet the description is accurate here and far from a criticism. Le Quattro Volte is a film about life, its cycles and unwavering endurance. Set in a small farming village nestled in the Italian hills of Calabria, the film chronicles life in four acts; each focused on the Pythagorean philosophy that mineral, vegetable, animal and human are all reincarnated.
It is a film that deals in big and small moments and treats them all with equal importance. Words such as transcendent, profound and spiritual can easily be thrown around when describing the film, and they would be worthy descriptions, but what is surprising is that…
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Around the world in May-ty days: Italy.
The purest, most organic piece of cinema I have ever seen.
The camera work is very well done, lots of stills and slow movements, no distracting motion stutter atall.
The interview with director, Michaelangelo Frammartino was just as captivating as the film itself.
Perfection. -
Listen closer.
The wind still blows.
The wind is the world in motion. We are the world. We are the wind.
We are the bells.
We change every day. We are not stone.
We are flesh. And blood. And fur. And dirt.
We await. We adore. We transform.
Time never stops.The wind still blows.
It gives us breath, it carries our words. It carries us.
It chimes the bells.
The bells are life. The bells are home.
We tend to the bells, and the bells tend to us.
Nature and routine. An eternal symbiosis guiding us into the unknown.
Both with the same goal, reward, curse.
Life and death. Flesh and blood.
Winner signaled by brief panic, then death.… -
Reinkarnasi adalah topik filsafat yang aneh namun bergerembul sisi keajaiban.Kambing adalah pemain utama disini, sang gembala kian renta dan sakit sakitan, yang percaya takhayul dengan meminum debu lantai gereja sebagai obatnya.Ketika sekarat kambing kambing yang merawatnya.Ah ada ada saja,tapi jika anda mengoceh kalau ini omong kosong anda akan sakit kepala. Cobalah..
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Quite an unexpected masterpiece, what started as a pastoral character study ended up being an incredibly ambitious and profound statement about life and its meaning.
The minimalism of the film is particularly remarkable; I cannot think of any other that manages to say so much with no dialogue and such austere cinematography. Le Quatro Volte resonated with me the way I was expecting The Tree of Life to do so, and in a much more economical fashion. Outstanding!
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After watching Le Quattro Volte it was early evening. I walked outside and pulled some small splits from our wood stack in preparation to build the evening fire. I brought them into the kitchen, laid them near the stove, and gathered some dry kindling like I always do.
I opened the stove door, and delicately shoveled the top layer of fine ash and dust and carefully deposited it into the ash pail beside the stove like I always do. The ash pail will later be emptied into an air tight ash can in the driveway, the contents later used on our driveway on icy winter days. The removal of the ash reveals a small bed of glowing embers, gently releasing…
-
I read that it was a visual poem to the Pythagorean idea of the soul migrating from man to animal to plant life. Whoa. That's a film for a Sunday morning viewing if ever there was one. I thought I would have to come prepared with knowledge of pre-Socratic philosophy, not my strong suit.
I didn't really want to work that hard. I preferred the idea of wanting to see it at some point in my life, secretly hoping that that point might never turn into a concrete now. But alas I noticed that it was expiring on Netflix very soon. It had to be done. I picked a morning time slot and came to it with plenty of caffeine.…
-
A beautiful film that immerses the viewer in the created world. Without the aid of words, Frammartino is still able to provide a strong sense of connection to his subject matter, animate and inanimate. The standout shot involves multiple 180 degree turns, sometimes with the slightest differences in them and with a dog doing what seems only a human actor could be trained to do.
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When i started i didn't know if i had subtitles hard-coded or not, so i thought i'd just play the film and if it turned out it didn't i'd get up and find them. Little did i know there is no dialogue in this film whatsoever. Just my luck, i didn't want to get up anyway.
An atmospheric contemplative film that you can simply sink into. I feel like shit today and this is exactly what i needed to lull me into a calm state of mind. Moving at glacier pace Le Quattro Volte has a great deal of ''cycle'' analogies, even the first scene returns to us near the end. Each ''turn'' is told from a different perspective; man,… -
The Men Who Stare at Goats for 88 Minutes and Feel Like They're Being Trolled