Nailed right on the cross
I wanted to start the year with something deep shit, so had chosen ‘Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles’ to watch first but unfortunately I’m at a stage, that to watch a 3.5 hour film at a stretch is a luxury beyond words. Can’t believe I watched ‘Sátántangó’ at a stretch. But that being said, for a brief moment when I got time I was lucky enough to choose a film, which I had no idea of, but again was a deep shit. I’m glad that I was able to open the account of the year with a strong film like this.
Watching these minimalistic artsy films always gives hope, gives a feel that one can become a filmmaker. Consider this film for example, it has fourteen long takes, barring a couple of chapters, the long takes are static, still it effortlessly yields us into the film. Such beautiful frame, so much to study, yet so simple. As a budding filmmaker when you watch a film like this, it gives hope that you too can make a movie with minimal budget, minimal crew and yet could come up with something significant. If not for inspiration, what is art meant for.
Ignorance is a bliss, always, when it comes to films. Watching a film without knowing anything about it gives great joy. This was one such film. Even after watching, as I was not aware of the Stations of the Cross concept, it was a great learning too. Like how a Ten Commandments was made into various films, this was so beautifully adapted into film. Especially loved the chapter ‘Jesus is stripped of his garments’. It was so perfect, in literal sense as well as with biblical reference. Wonder how would it had been who had known the concept, would they have been in awe with it or it’d have been underwhelming.
Maria (Lea van Acken) is a treasure trove. You can’t help but like her, so naïve and innocent. Her pure heart is something people can only dream of. On the other hand, the way she goes about it and how she is pushed into that situation raises a question. Whether she was not given space to grow into a normal child. Of course we tend to empathize with her and hate her mother (Franziska Weisz), another brilliant actor, but it doesn’t happen throughout the movie. At times there are scenes which confuses us, whether it’s a pro or anti christ movie. Largely towards the later, but in the climax when her brother tells her name, I was confused on the way the film was about to go.
The first few chapters are just static shots, you can’t help but admire framing, staging but most importantly acting. For every auteurs who don’t believe in acting, this movie would have been a slap in the face. Without proper actors, it would have been impossible to shoot the movie. But I can’t imagine how the kids were able to bring out the innocence after so much of rehearsal. Generally with each rehearsal the innocence gets lost but the scenes feel as real as possible and the acting is clinical, there is no sense of tiredness or boredom on the screen. May be that’s the mark of great actors.
Generally, when a film ends, there would be certain things which we’d feel like, could have gone in a different way or happened differently but this was a kind of film where I was left expressionless. It was as if I was in a spell and I was expected to accept the happenings. In fact it’s a difficult film to review. You can’t criticize or appreciate enough on the filmmaking, all you can do, is talk about concept but to do that, it must have been part of your culture, which for me was not, so at the end all I can do is be happy and thank god for my few minutes of forgetfulness to have chosen this film and not have waited for ‘Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles’ to happen first.
constantscribbles 