Director: Miguel Gomes
Year Released: 2012
Rating: 1.0
Failed two-part attempt at making a good experimental movie: the first half is a muddled story about a pesky nuisance of a woman who meets up and converses with a much older woman suffering from dementia who had a tryst while living in Africa; part two is a silent depiction of the affair (and its fall-out) with only voice-over narration to guide the story along. Though I greatly respect any and all efforts at trying to rethink the way movies are presented, Gomes neglects creating characters that somehow matter (in either part), and any kind of poignancy or reality from the tale being told is secondary to his filmmaking approach. Gomes doesn't have the same level of command of the aesthetics of silent cinema the way Murnau did - with Murnau's Tabu being the core influence - nor does he have the same gift at structuring avant-garde narration like Weerasethakul (the second part of this doesn't have the same level of intimacy, serenity and mysticism as, for example, Blissfully Yours).
