Brilliantly-acted and characterful movie about the affects of a tragic loss of youthful life on a small rural community. There is not much plot to speak of (save for an ambulance-chasing lawyer) but the emotional impact is devastating - especially if you are a parent yourself. Like a good wine with the cork just removed, the scenes are allowed to breathe to achieve their full flavor and work their magic on the palette. This reflects the time taken by the parents to come to terms with the tragedy and is a perfect example of an ideal marriage of form and content. Ultimately a disquisition on fate and destiny and of how we face up to the unknowability of each.
However, despite the Good Father sentiment of a father seeking redemption for his own fraught personal relationships, this film does not explore the self-pity of many of the characters as an issue even though it clearly is. This directorial self indulgence is common to creative artists who are using their craft as a form of self-therapy rather than as a valid means of self-expressive communication about the human condition, as such.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Sweet Hereafter
(1997)
80%
Copyright © 2010 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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Science:
Sleep of Reason:
The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.
(1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.
Humans & Aliens:
I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.
(circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.
Führerprinzip:
One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.
(1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)
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