Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by orejones (D) on January 25, 2006 at 04:50:26

In Reply to: For 90% of the movie, we're involved in an ensemble piece, with no posted by tinear on January 24, 2006 at 04:41:51:

...the wonderful epiphany that simply crowns it?

The old ladies, and the story behind them; the dancing (and the conversation between Gabriel and that nationalist lady); the wonderful dinner with the toasts; the singing (the old lady singing what well could be her swan song, that tenor singing the same song that unfortunate lad sang under Gretta´s window... another swan song, now that I think...); their trip through Dublin in their way to the hotel..., each and every scene is conceived, and developed, towards Gretta´s rememoration leading to Gabriel´s last reflections, where everything in the whole film is recapitulated under a single light, a somber reflection about life, love, and death: a jewel of rare perfection indeed!

Everything in the film is in what well may be the most beautiful short story ever written in English language. But the film stands -and gloriously it does- on its own feet, as one of the best filmic achievements of all times. No less.

Certainly, the author takes his time to let the story develop, in the same way a good conductor sets the right pace for a symphony to grow under his batoon, with every repeat, and the final coda, with the whole becoming much greater than the sum of the parts. As it should be.

Maybe not everybody will appreciate the low pace, the morosity, the sensibility, and the deep love a man whose life was reaching its end put in making this film. It´s the sign of our times:

"As the sensibilities of our age demand less Rimbaud and more Rambo, mass murder and destruction have blunted the imaginations´s ability to face the (probably banal) end which is tailor-made for each of us. It takes sudden tragedy, war or terminal illness to bring real Death (as opposed to its video double) into the twentieth century home. Time´s hand is firmly on the fast-forward button of life until death´s cold finger interrupts the jumble of images with a sudden freexe-frame finale...." (Graham Johnson, in the libretto in vol 11 of the Complete Edition of Schubert´s lieder)

Regards

BF