2010 ‘Nostalgia de la luz’ Directed by Patricio Guzmán
In Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers peer deep into the cosmos in search for answers concerning the origins of life. Nearby, a group of women sift through the sand searching for body parts of loved ones, dumped unceremoniously by Pinochet's regime.
Nostalgie de la lumière, Nostalgie de la Lumière
Nostalgia for the Light feels like the blinding cosmic melancholia borrowed straight from Lars von Trier, mixed with Director Patricio Guzmán's deeply unaffected and personal love and compassion for the carefree Chilean childhood he can't go back again. If you think science and poetic beauty are mutually exclusive, watch this arthouse documentary and think again.
In this multi-layered documentary, Guzmán begs the question that shakes the soul: when human beings are busy looking at stars million lightyears away, can we stop for a minute just to take a look at ourselves? In the arid Atacama Desert, scientists focus on their star-gazing tasks, while families of murdered political prisoners are equally occupied by their own missions -- rediscovering the bodies of…
I love it when films feel like they were made for me. As a Hispanic American with heavy Chilean heritage and ancestry, whose mother escaped from Chile to the U.S. towards the beggining of Pinochet's rule, I feel like theirs a lot in this film that I was able to personally relate to. I may not have had the same exact experiences, but I still felt the pain within the words of those who lost loved ones to Pinochet's dictatorship government and the concentration camps. The distortions on space and time throughout Nostalgia for the Light were also incredibly interesting to witness and observe, allowing us to form a connection between the vastness of the universe and our own past…
An absolutely stunning film that manages to enrapture the viewer visually, emotionally and intellectually. The word poetic doesn't do it justice. Patricio Guzmán's examination of light gradually turns into a discourse on his country's troubled past and its uncertain future. Some of the most moving moments involve conversations with survivors of Pinochet's regime who continue to look for loved ones. But first and foremost this is a grand visual experience, magnificently shot and striking to behold.
Nostalgia for the Light is a humbling documentary concerning the connectivity of universal principles of archaeology and astronomy.
Written and directed by Patricio Guzmán, it's quietly contemplative in its reflections on separations of the interruptions of time. It incorporates some stunning shots of the horizon and the vast emptiness of space into its concepts, the effects of which often represent almost hallucinogenic qualities. It focuses on an arid territory in western Chile to poetically delve into the social and political challenges which have confronted the country; parallelling two different examinations conducted in the region disclosed through a sequence of thoughtful interviews.
These include some astronomers gazing skyward for explanations to the universe thoughtfully juxtaposed with women surveying the ground underfoot, digging…
A documentary/rumination on memory, the past, the cosmos and Chile's place on it, with a special focus on the Atacama desert, and an examination of both the astronomers doing scientific work there with some of the world's largest telescopes, and the families trying to retrieve the dead who have been left behind after being disappeared during the Pinochet regime there.
The film opens with some nakedly autobiographical musings, set to poetic imagery, which establishes the tone, before moving into the role of history and the telescopes--it doesn't start to contrast the experiences of the astronomers searching the stars for answers to the mysteries of the universe with the women sifting through the dry sands of the Atacama to try and…
I would almost go as far as to say Nostalgia for the Light is rhythmically soothing, if not for the devastating subject matter than unfurls itself throughout its runtime. A really powerful, impactful intersection of science and emotion, forming into a vivid piece of documentary filmmaking that helps cement the stories of thousands of lost people. Thought-provoking and heart-stirring!
Nostalgia for the Light is a spectacular documentary film that is about looking for answers to the mysteries of life. Patricio Guzmán brilliantly crafts a film which is as much about looking outwards as it is looking inwards. The documentary takes place in Chile, where there are many astronomers who look to space to answer questions they have about the universe, but at the same time Guzmán makes a link between astronomy and archaeology that most would easily overlook.
In the 20th century, there were Chilean concentration camps under the ruling of Pinochet which tore families apart. The bodies of the men who were lost were dumped into the desert and the ocean, the women who lost their loved ones…
A nice little documentary about the universe and science as it parallels with the concentration camps in Chile during the dictatorship of Pinochet and found and missings of many political prisoners.
Technically speaking, there are some great cinematography that are very good. I wouldn't say its top notch, but the use of photography and special effects, especially on the moon shots are great. The score is very good as well.
The story of Pinochet and the concentration camps, something I didn't knew, was completely interesting and eerily fascinating. Unfortunately the story tries to force a story about science and evolution that never fully comes together and the latter aspect feels more as a rather distraction.
All in all, featuring some great cinematography and ideas that are pretty interesting sadly gets watered down for a whole narrative about the universe that never fully gets realized. I would have loved for it to focus more on the dictatorship.
There is a particular scene of "Nostalgia for the Light" where a man says there is no present, it is already gone. And isn't that something simultaneously beautiful and tragic. Like a fleeting moment I cannot reach. I am trying to find something in the present, and once I understand it, then it's gone. And you may think, ok but if you want a cookie you can still get it. Ok sure, it's not necessarily that and it isn't exactly the scientific notion of looking at the sky and you're looking at the past, as the light that reaches us took its time to reach us. What it made me think about is the kind of things that are there…
I enjoyed the astronomy bits (especially the shots of space), but the rest of it? Not so much. Frickin’ Agus.
This is a visually stunning documentary. Guzman's core thesis on connectivity is engaging and thought provoking. He finds a nexus point between things I would
not necessarily connect here - Astronomy and the pain of a nation struggling to come to grips with a dark period of its past - and draws a direct correlation between the search for answers about the beginning of the universe and the search for the remains of lost loved ones killed by the Pinochet regime in Chile. This is a fascinating film with an excellent score that adds a lot to an already emotionally impactful viewing experience.
