jürgen fauth’s muckworld

Walther Ruttmann’s non-narrative rhythmic portrait of Berlin, usually connected to the “kino-eye” of Dziga Vertov, also had a clear influence on Godfrey Reggio. Much more upbeat than Koyaanisqatsi, Symphony covers a “regular day” in the metropolis circa 1927, celebrating modern life before the speed and exploitation turned sour. No dire Hopi prophecies here, even though a dire future was right around the corner. There’s a new score by Seattle psych rock band Kinski which I’d love to hear. Ruttmann went on to make Nazi propaganda: Blut und Boden, Metall des Himmels, Deutsche Waffenschmieden, Deutsche Panzer, and so forth. According to Steven Bach, Ruttmann worked on Triumph of the Will as Leni Riefenstahl’s co-director but was later excised from the credits.

Berlin: Die Symphonie der Großstadt. Walter Ruttmann, 1927. ****

• Cinecine: “holds up as one of the most striking non-fiction films ever made.”
• Channel 4
• Dave Kehr
• No love from TimeOut
• Allan James Thomas in Senses of Cinema
• Klaus Kreimer for Filmzentrale (in German)
• Speaking of Vertov: The Man With the Movie Camera on Google Video
• Watch Ruttman’s short Opus I on YouTube
• And now… Berlin, Symphony of a Great City in its entirety:

It’s unavoidable that the even-handed but alarming eco-documentary The 11th Hour will be compared to the Al Gore Oscar-winning global warming shocker An Inconvenient Truth, but climate change is only one of the topics the film addresses. In fact, The 11th Hour has much more in common with Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi, the narration-free film that combines stunning cinematography and Philip Glass to paint a picture of “life out of balance,” the translation of its Hopi title.

“Life out of balance” would have made a good subtitle for the first feature-length documentary by sisters Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners. With the help of producer and narrator Leonardo DiCaprio, they restate the point Koyaanisqatsi makes wordlessly — only in much more urgent terms and with the science to back it up. Among recent documentaries questioning the status quo (The Corporation, When the Levees Broke, Why We Fight, An Inconvenient Truth, Sicko), The 11th Hour takes the most far-reaching point of view and connects issues into larger patterns, culminating in a truly global call for change.

Read the rest of my review on About Worldfilm. The 11th Hour opens on August 17.

The 11th Hour. Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen, 2007. ****

The trailer:

You notice a lot seeing Inland Empire a second time. First of all, you realize you’ve been getting tired of capitalizing the title like that. Then, it sinks in that David Lynch is right: Inland Empire makes perfect sense–and it’s about a woman in trouble.

The reason Inland Empire works so goddamn well, I think, is the structure. It’s like Trey said at Coventry: I just wanted to see how weird I could get and still have people dance to it. On the Koyaanisqatsi commentary track, Philip Glass talks about leaving space between the images and the music–the key, he says, is to leave a room for the audience, for their ideas and imagination (his example were the maneuvering jumbo jets with the etherial voices.) Somehow, Inland Empire leaves tremendous spaces without ever quite snapping the tenuous lines of connection that hold the entire thing together. It’s a strange film, but you can definitely dance to it.

A woman in trouble. The tagline suggests an entire narrative, and it’s there. Inland Empire is structurally sound; once again, you can map a hero’s journey onto the film–with hookers doing the locomotion and talking bunnies, but still a hero’s journey. Scene by scene, it’s extraordinarily compelling and loaded with clues, cross-references, and payoffs to reward and further confuse the viewer. In Catching the Big Fish, Lynch likens ideas to fish, and he says he likes to dive deep: “Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.” Because of its many disparate parts, and its length, Inland Empire is difficult to contain in words, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible to grasp it. And indeed, it’s huge and abstract, and very beautiful. It’s also very, very funny.

Some things to watch out for the next time you see Inland Empire: What do whores do? Who is the Phantom, and what kind of an “opening” is he looking for? “It has something to do with the telling of time”–so is it 9:45, or after midnight? Who lost their son? What does the tatoo on Nikki’s right hand mean? Who has a way with animals? What are the rabbits waiting for? Who’s a freaaaaak? “Take a good look and tell me if you’ve known me before.” Is there a bus to Pomona? You’re in a movie theater, in the dark, before they bring up the lights. Keep up with your angle vis-a-vis the screen. Is there murder in On High in Blue Tomorrows? And what is the significance of the bright light?

Inland Empire. David Lynch, 2006. *****

• On seeing Inland Empire for the third time
• Official Site with theatrical schedule
• David Lynch’s forthcoming book, Catching the Big Fish
• Manohla Dargis’ Review
• My review on Worldfilm
• Andrew O’Hehir interviews David Lynch
• Inland Empire on RT: 52%

[tags]film, 5 stars, laura dern, david lynch, inland empire, surreal, rabbits, ifc center, koyaanisqatsi, philip glass, trey anastasio, hero’s journey[/tags]