Manakamana (U.)
Directed by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez. English and Nepalese with subtitles. 118 mins.
At the start of the film a very old man and a young boy sit down next to each other in a cable car and, observed by a static camera, are silently transported over tree lined mountains for just under 10 minutes. The old man largely tries to ignore the camera, but the young boy can't stop himself from giving pensive looks into its lens, as if he was wondering what on earth he had gotten himself into. At this stage I had much the same feeling, particularly when their journey finishes and we jump back down the mountain to join another lady making another wordless trip up the mountain.
It all reminded me of was the time I had wandered unprepared into a screening of Kirostami's Shirin, only to discover that whole film was shots of actresses' faces as they acted watching a movie in a cinema auditorium. That was compelling for about ten minutes and them quickly became spirit crushingly dull; this though goes the other direction. After 25 minutes the first words are spoken, the film slowly begins to work its spell and the effort of keeping my finger away from the forward wind button lessened greatly. By the end I was feeling moderately rapturous about the whole experience.
Six times we go up the hill and then (spoiler) six times we go down the hill. Sometimes the people sit with their backs to the mountain, sometimes facing. That really is all there is to it. Gradually we learn that the cable car journey is to a temple and that it is in Nepal. Yes, “Crushingly dull” is an entirely reasonable response to this material, more art project than documentary, but most open minded viewers will I think find something of merit in it.
Nothing is directly communicated and possibly nothing much is intuited. I did seem to me though that the reactions of pilgrims and those of the tourists were largely the same. The film has been described as spiritual, but the only great truth I took from it is that unedited film taken from a fixed camera pointed at a scene in motion can generate a disproportionate amount of dramatic interest. Nothing happens and it is fascinating, occasionally enthralling. Watching it you realise how most film making, with its pans, close ups, two shots and metronomic editing, casually squanders most of the advantages of the medium.
Extras.
This is one time when I could really have done with a Making Of, because the mechanics of how it was done, and how aware and involved the passenger were would seem to be quite relevant to understanding the film. But all we get are three deleted sequences. Taken out of context they don't really seem worthwhile but they seem to suggest that there was a filmmaker sitting in the cable car with the participants when they were being filmed.
Directed by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez. English and Nepalese with subtitles. 118 mins.
At the start of the film a very old man and a young boy sit down next to each other in a cable car and, observed by a static camera, are silently transported over tree lined mountains for just under 10 minutes. The old man largely tries to ignore the camera, but the young boy can't stop himself from giving pensive looks into its lens, as if he was wondering what on earth he had gotten himself into. At this stage I had much the same feeling, particularly when their journey finishes and we jump back down the mountain to join another lady making another wordless trip up the mountain.
It all reminded me of was the time I had wandered unprepared into a screening of Kirostami's Shirin, only to discover that whole film was shots of actresses' faces as they acted watching a movie in a cinema auditorium. That was compelling for about ten minutes and them quickly became spirit crushingly dull; this though goes the other direction. After 25 minutes the first words are spoken, the film slowly begins to work its spell and the effort of keeping my finger away from the forward wind button lessened greatly. By the end I was feeling moderately rapturous about the whole experience.
Six times we go up the hill and then (spoiler) six times we go down the hill. Sometimes the people sit with their backs to the mountain, sometimes facing. That really is all there is to it. Gradually we learn that the cable car journey is to a temple and that it is in Nepal. Yes, “Crushingly dull” is an entirely reasonable response to this material, more art project than documentary, but most open minded viewers will I think find something of merit in it.
Nothing is directly communicated and possibly nothing much is intuited. I did seem to me though that the reactions of pilgrims and those of the tourists were largely the same. The film has been described as spiritual, but the only great truth I took from it is that unedited film taken from a fixed camera pointed at a scene in motion can generate a disproportionate amount of dramatic interest. Nothing happens and it is fascinating, occasionally enthralling. Watching it you realise how most film making, with its pans, close ups, two shots and metronomic editing, casually squanders most of the advantages of the medium.
Extras.
This is one time when I could really have done with a Making Of, because the mechanics of how it was done, and how aware and involved the passenger were would seem to be quite relevant to understanding the film. But all we get are three deleted sequences. Taken out of context they don't really seem worthwhile but they seem to suggest that there was a filmmaker sitting in the cable car with the participants when they were being filmed.
