To help you ease your way into our world, we have devised a the film difficulty ranking system to rate the difficulty of each film reviewed on our site. The easiest to watch films (the Rom-Coms and Superhero flicks that you watch anyway) will have a rating of 1. Foreign language films automatically add one point, as do black and white films, and films with strange and hard to follow plots. Welcome to the top of the mountain – Film Difficulty 5.
Film Difficulty Ranking 5: Want to show-off in front of your film-loving friends? These films might just be for you. Very hard to get into and watch, these films are for the upper echelon of film critics, that dissect every minute to find every piece of glory. These films are like analyzing Ulysses or translating Kant.
Once you’ve mastered these films, you’ve achieved your FilmRoot bragging rights.
From: Portugal, Europe Watch: Trailer, JustWatch Next: Horse Money, From What is Before, CocoteContinue reading “Vitalina Varela – An Artistic Meditation on Mourning”
From What is Before Film Difficulty Ranking: 5
This is Lav Diaz. He’s one of torch bearers of the slow film movement having made some of the longest cinematic films. In From What is Before he documents the history of a small rural town in the Philippines during Marcos’ rule. Like Gabriel Garcia’s Macondo, this small town serves as a metaphor for the entire country. As a result, this is your chance to experience contemporary Filipino history.
Here’s a little snippet courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival. It shows you exactly what slow cinema is like – are you patient enough to try it?
“This story is a memory of my country”
The film starts with a beautiful black and white shot of the Filipino countryside. You can see the fields of corn, tall hills in the distance, and a small shack in the foreground. This is the rural Philippines in 1970.
From the outset you can tell this is a slow film. You can tell because the camera rarely moves, each of the shots lasts for at least 2 minutes, and there is very little dialogue. Contrast this with the 5 second shot length in Hollywood films, and a load of action and dialogue, and you’ll understand why this is called slow film.
The length of From What is Before allows Lav Diaz (the director) to properly show us the gradual growth of fear in the rural town he examines. You’ll meet all the people of the town before the first signs of Marcos’ martial law start appearing around the 3 hour mark. Then you’ll see how the military rule slowly undermines the community through fear.
For an exploration into the power of fear in undermining unity, this film is a masterclass. Watch as Marcos’ martial law slowly envelops a small town in the Filipino country.
For more Slow film try the following:
Colour of Pomegranates is not a biography of the 18th Century Armenian poet Sayat Nova, but a film which tries to depict his poetry on film. If you’re looking for plot, storyline, and a conclusion, stay away from this movie. However, if you want to explore how you can use film as an artistic medium, check out this brilliantly esoteric and stylish film.
From: Armenia, AsiaContinue reading “Colour of Pomegranates (Armenia) – Travel Back in Time”
Watch: Amazon (Buy), YouTube
Next: Un Chien Andalou, Edvard Munch, Neruda
Le Moulin Film Difficulty Ranking: 5
Watching Le Moulin is like walking round a great Taiwanese museum. All the interesting stuff is listed next to some intriguing artifacts from the period. You will come out of the film feeling like an expert on Taiwanese literature in the 20th century.
Le Moulin starts with dice rolling on a board. Disorientating music plays as we watch four men with their heads and feet out of frame line up to be photographed. Next we see the picture crystalising on a piece of photo paper in it’s chemical bath.
The four men are part of a collective of Taiwanese poets that tried to establish a Taiwanese voice against the Japanese colonisers. You’ll follow their story from the early 1930s when Taiwan was occupied by Japan, through to the 1950s when Kuomintang declared martial law.
You will learn a lot about Taiwanese history and literature watching Le Moulin. However, the main attraction is it’s form. One minute you’re watching a re enactment of the collective and the next you are being shown incredible still pictures from the era and having poems read to you in full. You’ll even notice art work from Picasso, Cocteau, and Chaplin dotted around the film.
All in all it is a complete documentation of modern Taiwanese literature. It leaves no rock unturned.
The style and form sets Le Moulin apart. It weaves in photos, mementos, art, poetry, and reenactments to create what is effectively a museum exhibit on Taiwanese literature. A must for someone interested in how to use form in historic documentary films.
For a fictional film which also experiments with form, I’d recommend checking out Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Mysterious Object at Noon.
Too Early, Too Late isn’t your typical documentary. Instead of following a person, animal, or political movement, it documents the landscape through a series of long sweeping shots of fields, land, and people. If you’re a people watcher, or someone who likes to sit on a park bench and contemplate the view, you’ll enjoy Too Early, Too Late. It requires patience, an open mind, and some open ears.
From: France, Egypt, Europe, AfricaRead The Full Review
Watch: YouTube, Rent on Amazon
Next: Playtime, Peace, Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
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