Stop, Dave.
I’m afraid.
I’m afraid, Dave.
Finally.
Double-masked up to go witness this in a theater the way I’d always wanted to. I’ve never seen it in any other capacity. The world was beginning to feel so small and increasingly overwhelming. Movies, days, and all of my work began to feel hampered by air, melting into one another to the point of detachment on my part. I’m sure more is waiting for me, but for now I feel unhinged…
We’re all born entertainers, you know that? Flip Wilson—true story—was hitchhiking and the white man gave him a ride. He said, “What do you do for a living?" Flip said "I'm an entertainer". He said, “But...aren’t you all?” That’s a true story.
This plays every line and gesture so closely to the surface of the text that it becomes nearly impossible to feel anything beyond the filmmakers intent. It’s a fact that isn’t helped by the overbearing score or the occasionally overbearing filmmaking, which take center stage whenever the situation at hand has been stretched so thinly that it can only offer an inch more in the way of tension. Cassavetes is cited as an influence here, but there seems to be a…
Everything about the filmmaking here feels so in-tune with the emotional world of these women. The cuts and freeze frames that accent breaks in thought or moments of pure expression, the focus and adoration for the communal moments and family that lie beyond the performers & performances, and the time-traveling flyers that carry us back through our own lives. The soundscape evokes, to me, the absence of a traditional bass line in Prince’s When Doves Cry. Rather than trying to constantly push the…
SPOILERS:
As time goes on, and we attempt to draw on the things and people that have affected us most, dreams and memories become indistinguishable from one another. I was so lost in the romance that I didn’t realize how heartbreaking that final switch to black & white on the island could potentially be. But whether it ended one way or another seems so secondary to the experience of feeling the wind with someone else, or remembering the music and the danger that marked the moment. Such a beautiful film when I sit back and think about it. A new comfort for me.
Forgot to log. Watched late at night with my brother, followed by a good talk and a Dragon Ball Super mini-marathon.
One of my favorite things here was watching the butcher carefully prepare meat for his fellow shop keepers. There’s so much intimacy on this little street, but this particular act really reminded me of the things we’ve traded in for the sake of convenience—namely, tenderness and familiarity. Another was the sequence of love stories, and the sequence near the end where the magician imposes sleep upon the audience. Blinking between portraits of each shop keepers family, it slowly begins to feel as if I’ve met all of these people by chance, somewhere in my dreams.
"Possibly, it was the conflict of desires with time. But I can see that time is more powerful because..."
"Because?"
"Because it doesn’t wait."
An epic, written in desert tears on time-withered pages.
Wow is all I can say.
Also, make sure you check out this great interview with Su Friedrich conducted by @rdelany from Split Tooth Media!!
“Why have you done this?”
“Done what?”
“Why do you put up with me like this?”
”Someone had to.”
”But why you?”
”I just happened to be here.”
So glad I gave this another chance. A few of my favorite things:
• Maria’s mother telling Maria to go get her comb—ergo, manipulating her—while simultaneously telling her that she’s in charge of her own life.
• Hartley’s focus on faces, particularly those of women, coping silently with their own lives while…
The Wendy storyline/character felt a bit contrived, but other than that I had a great time with this. Needed a laugh after a day like today, and this had plenty. Good to see Philip Baker Hall working (and sharing scenes with Isiah Whitlock Jr!). The entire cast is fantastic and they each consistently make interesting choices with these lines.