From: Freya (email suppressed)
Date: Sun Mar 11 2007 - 10:15:35 PDT
Well, I thought I'd review a film I'd seen, I'm afraid
it isn't really an experimental film in the way we
might think of experimental films, although it does
break the rules of traditional cinema with its long
static shots and people staring directly into the
camera.
Then again, who knows what experimental cinema is
anymore, I'm sure I don't.
There is a song by X_Ray Spex called "the day the
world turned day glo". I've always wanted to write a
song called "The day the world turned Brown Mannila",
you know, like the envelopes. It seems much more
likely.
Now I have discovered that someone has made a film
that depicts exactly this. It is caled "World of
glory" (or the truck film, as I've been calling it)
and is by Roy Andersson, the director of songs from
the second floor.
The opening shot of the film depicts naked people
being loaded onto a meat truck while people in suits
stand around and watch passively. The doors are shut
the truck starts up and the exhaust is connected to a
hole in the back of the truck and you hear the muffled
banging and screaming of the people inside. You watch
as the truck drives around in the distance. During
this scene, every so often, one of the men in the
suits turns around and stares directly into the
camera, as if to say what do you think of this? This
character is the hero of our film if there is such a
thing.
The rest of the film we just see this man and his life
and the world they have created. Various scenes from
his life.
There is a fault on the dvd such that if you play all
the films on the disc the subtitles stop functioning.
For this reason the first time I saw this film I saw
it without subtitles, but I still knew exactly what
the fellow was saying in the final scene and what he
is thinking "is it in my head or is it real?".
By the time the film has started it is already too
late for our character in this film. Theres no action
he can take anywhere in the film that will make things
okay. He is powerless and it is already too late. How
did he get in this situation? Did he have the chance
to change things before we meet him at the beggining
of the film? We do not know.
What we do know is that we don't want to live in the
world he inhabits.
There are many different kinds of people in the world,
just like there are many flowers and plants in a
beautiful garden. We wouldn't want to have only one
kind of flower. Diversity is a beautiful thing, and
all the different kinds of people have different
things to offer.
I guess we have to act in our life now, before we find
ourselves standing around a truck as naked people are
loaded in.
There is another review of the film here:
http://www.reverseshot.com/article/world_of_glory
It's available on the European version of the cinema
16 series!
It's an amazing film, truly one of the greatest films
ever made. If I had one criticism of it, it would be
that the characters in this film do not appear to be
beautiful or glamouress. For this reason my favourite
film of all time is still Freaks by Todd Browning, but
this film came close. Sometimes the monsters are not
who you expect them to be sometimes they are beautiful
and charismatic.
However as a warning for our future it is an excellent
film.
Please check it out.
love
Freya
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