Well, what can I say about this film?
Firstly, I guess I can obviously say it was the first film to be "premiered" during the FIRST Friday screening!
I mean, I know I expected it to be black and white, but I actually thought we were watching silent films! Ngh, yes, this was a silent film, but it was partially silent, there was still sounds. :)
Lets, get down to my thoughts on this film, shall we?
When I first watched the film, the beginning fascinated me. The introduction before the film, the strange music playing in the background, and the insane pictures like the eye :-
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| LOVE the eye by the way, it's so abstract!! *winks* |
The beginning of the story, well...
My first impression of the guy that was about to get hanged was that he looked like a munchkin! I mean, I don't know why, but he literally looked like a munchkin to me, he looked really short and kind of chubby which I found rather amusing. Frankly, I found it so amusing, I giggled slightly upon looking at him at first sight.
Yet, my interest in how amusing he was, slowly gave way to a new emotion as the story progressed. I saw the look of sadness on his face as they( the soldiers) tied the rope or noose around his neck and prepared to hang him. I started to feel really sorry for him and found myself pitying him.
When he cried, knowing he might die, it reminded me of my fear of death. I mean here he is, knowing that at any moment, he is going to go! I mean, just the thought of knowing can haunt you. Throughout that scene, I was thinking "just get it over with already!!"
Personally, I fear death, I fear not knowing the unknown, and I fear knowing that I might be concious when I am in the process of dying.
I started getting confused when the soldier jumped on the plank of wood and the guy dropped into the water instead of getting hanged. I mean, I was like "Huh?"
I expected him to get hanged. My thoughts were simple, " Did they forget to tighten the rope around him or something? Was his falling into the water and escaping, something the soldiers did deliberately?"
I thought it was deliberate because after that they started shooting him when he came up for air, I felt, somehow, like they were using him as target practice, although the soldiers kept missing him.
Anyways, the whole scene from how he was in the water, to how he escaped, slightly puzzled me. As he got to the surface, he looked at a soldier who was about to shoot him, straight in the eye. The soldier was aiming at him with a gun. Then, the guy closed his eyes. To me, that scene looked as if the guy was about to give up. So, I closed my eyes at that moment, when the gunshot fired. I thought to myself, " Oh, poor guy!" and didn't want to see the rest.
But he didn't get shot!!
The next thing I knew, he was swimming away, and the soldiers were all shooting him in the water. Like I mentioned before, it looked like the soliders were using him as target practice, making me wonder whether they deliberately allowed him to get away. I didn't really have alot of feeling for this scene, I was rather neutral.
After he managed to reach land, he started floundering around in the sand. I thought that was funny, and that he was rather insane. Obviously, I laughed because he looked like a madman. Yet, rationally, I knew he was just plain happy.
Then, he started running through the woods, and got home. During the whole scene, where he was having a reunion with his wife, to the part where he started running towards her happily, there was only one thought that kept running through my mind.
" He is SO gonna get shot! Someone is going to shoot him."
My expectations were either there was someone like a soldier hiding somewhere, aiming a gun at him and was ready to fire, the minute he reached his wife, or at any moment when he was running towards her OR that his wife would be the one to kill him. I assumed the wife because she was crying and had a sort of sad expression on her face when he was running towards her.
I only have one word for the ending : UNEXPECTED!!!
I never expected the ending to end the way it did. I honestly did not! I was shocked and suprised.
It was a dream?? The WHOLE thing was a dream? Wow!
But I did get one thing right, he did die in the end :)
All in all, it was a superb ending to a good film.
I found the theme of the question between life and death very interesting, and I loved the way the director expressed it in this film. Moreover, I also would like to add that I was very impress and in awe of the settings that he chose to shoot the movie. The bridge...the river...the woods...
And how he used certain shots to capture the elements of the theme, like zooming in on the spider that was about to eat its prey on the web and the flowers.
How I find this relates to me personally?
Well, recently, my dog passed away. She was a very old dog, and I am happy she died the way she did. She was suffering from liver failure due to cancer. The day I got back from the U.S., I received news that my dog was in the hospital, and that her liver was gone. The doctors could do nothing to save her. It seemed, this was a result the doctors made a week ago, while I was away. They were all simply waiting for me to come home to tell me the news. They feared my dog would pass away within that week, but she didn't. It seemed as though, well, as if, she was hanging on for dear life. People tell me that she was waiting for me to come visit her, so that I could tell her goodbye. Frankly, it did feel that way to me too, because, the day after I came to visit her, she passed away. :(
The film reminded me of this event that just recently happened because it explored the theme between the line of life and death. I was given the choice, to give my consent to put my dog to sleep, or to let her die a natural death. The doctors told me that if she died naturally, she would have suffered and be in pain, till her last breath.
The event of hanging the guy in the film reminds me VERY STRONGLY about what I just went through, and it is honestly, still affecting me, as I write this.
I am still not over the death of my dear companion, but I know I will get better in time.
But it is due to the tragedy that I just went through, which has allowed this film to draw out such strong emotions in me.
In conclusion, this is why I say, this film has moved me.
