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No thread for this one yet? I just watched the fresh-off-the-presses Kino Blu-ray of this (which looks fantastic by the way) and was left in complete awe. A plot description in this case might qualify as a spoiler so I won't get into that (though I had the plot spoiled myself and I wouldn't say it lessened the film's impact--it might actually help some viewers to know that the film is in fact headed somewhere ). Others will surely praise the film's gorgeous cinematography or intriguing metaphysics, but what I was most impressed by here was the direction of animals. The camera at times gives us an intimate look at how these animals (primarly goats) act and interact with each other, but without ever feeling like it's violating their space. (Wouldn't a goat's natural instinct be to try to eat the camera, or is that just a malicious goat stereotype?) But there are also certain actions that some of the animals take that are incredibly moving and/or key to the development of the plot, and I am frankly at a loss as to how the director could have managed to stage these moments as perfectly as he does. I was reminded of one of the dinosaur scenes in Tree of Life, in which the way that one decently-rendered CGI creature treats another seems like a deliberate choice to grant a kind of epic resonance to some of the film's themes. Here you get similarly deliberate gestures or actions, only coaxed from real animals in real time in front of a real camera, just as God intended it.

I commented on this excellent film in my Dynamic Top Ten. Here's what I had to say:

"More convincing metaphysics than Tree of Life, but also extremely satisfying filmmaking, with particularly attentive and subtle sound work and one particular Tatiesque long take that’s on the shortlist for shot of the year."

Good to get the All Clear on the BluRay. I believe MichaelB was also a fan, so he might want to chime in as well.

I assume the film is meant to be seen with zero subtitles, yes? (The Kino offers none.) I mean, not that there's much dialogue to miss, but I did spend like the first 45 minutes wondering if subs would eventually appear.

I don't think the film requires any subtitles. I don't particularly remember any, and I saw it twice in theaters. It was my favorite film of last year.

I do think that shot is one of the greatest in cinema, and certainly the best of last year. I believe I read that it took two weeks to do it. (The shot in question is obvious when you see the film, although there are several long takes that are incredible).

I don't think it needs them either (though I don't speak Italian, so I can't claim to know whether the sparse dialogue is entirely disposable), though one certainly could subtitle a few moments, if one were so inclined. Probably wouldn't add much to the experience though.

Spoiler

Besides, if I were a tree, I wouldn't be able to understand what those people were saying either.

And yes, that one shot is ridiculously good.

Apart from everything else, it incorporates the wittiest pan I've seen in a long time (the hot contenders in Mysteries of Lisbon are, I believe, in fact tracking shots), in the way that

Spoiler

the mechanical back and forth movement of the shot just happens to elide the 'moment of impact' and then placidly drifts back to survey the damage.

Huge fan of this film. I saw it earlier this year at SFIFF, and I have revisited it recently on… well… Netflix. Not a Blu-Ray presentation by any means, but even their ass-tastic Silverlight technology could not ruin the experience.

The deliberate and almost planetary revolution the film takes would seem preordained, except that each moment was totally unexpected. There is that marvelous overhead long take you have all admired (the only guess I have as to the amazing dog performance is that some of the actors on the street were also the dog handlers/trainers), and even some surprising ellipses, particularly when

Spoiler

there was no resolution to the lost kid; I could imagine another filmmaker showing its bones at the foot of the tree (assuming it died), but the decision to leave it open was delicate and annihilatory at once. (The whole sequence with the baby goat was terrifying to me, but scenes with animals in peril always destroy me.) Another surprise was the entombment rhyme between the mausoleum and the charcoal kiln, and that awesome thump and hum when the screen goes black. The whole film was full of microcosmic cliffhangers, too: Will he or will he not notice the ant crawling on his face?

I think it’s a testament to the film’s greatness that one could consider these moments spoilers.

Anyway, I loved it. Glad to hear Kino did it justice.

I think your assumption is confirmed by the structure of the film, in that

Spoiler

each 'chapter' leads on to the next because the 'life essence' of the previous protagonist has been passed on in some causal / physical way to the next one, and the body of the dead kid feeds the tree. I read that first shot of the tree as a kid's-eye-view one, an ironically hopeful one of possible shelter.

But like you, I was amazed and impressed that the structure of the film is the only confirmation of this.

My favourite micro-cliffhanger:

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what's going to happen when he doesn't get to drink his holy dirt?

Which actually turned out to be a biggie.

Between this and Uncle Boonmee, I feel like Art House Cinema is straight-up trolling the film world right now.

zedz wrote:Good to get the All Clear on the BluRay. I believe MichaelB was also a fan, so he might want to chime in as well.

I am most definitely a fan - I was lucky enough to see it on a huge screen with absolutely no advance info other than the enthusiastic recommendation of a friend, and have similarly persuaded several other friends to see it (including one who had no apparent interest in wordless arthouse cinema, but who was intrigued by my accurate description of it as the best goat film ever - she dragged her fiancé along, and they both loved it too).

Has anyone seen the Sight & Sound piece that covered it a few months back (June 11 issue)? It seems that there was no written script as such - instead, Frammartino meticulously storyboarded the film in advance - and we're not just talking stick-men (or goats): his draughtsmanship is excellent. As he explained in the piece "I feel that if I draw, I don't alter the idea I have in my head. Whereas if I try to write something down, I'm using a different part of my brain. So I draw, I take photographs, I make small animated sequences."

Incidentally, New Wave is bringing it out next week (at least according to an ad in the new Sight & Sound), so it might be worth waiting for the inevitable Beaver comparison before ordering.

Very good film, and very pleased to see it is on Blu-ray. I'm torn between the Kino and the New Wave films release. The New Wave has a director interview not on the Kino, but I'm dubious as to the PQ of the New Wave and haven't found any reviews. Does anyone have the New Wave? How is it?

Thanks!

Rather surprised at how well this turned out as the praise made me assume this would be some sub-Pedro Costa nonsense which I suppose the first face conforms to, but then it goes all Kafka (I'm really annoyed I can't remember the name of the not written by Kafka story I'm actually thinking of) into a surprisingly great film which begs to be reviewed with all this new information in mind. It is interesting that dramatically it undermines itself (certainly it is not the sort of story I'd take as dramatic typically) just in time for its most emotionally based sequence, that of the kid, yet somehow Frammartino pulls it off making it such a heartwrenching downer despite the guarantee that it can't be a downer. It's an amazing question of empathy from a religious standpoint though the film clearly aligns with the easy answer (which to be fair is the only humane one).

The revival of this thread reminds me that I forgot to vote for this film in the Films of Faith List Project. Now I'm definitely going to be reincarnated as soil.

At least you won't have to worry about goats stealing your table anymore.

A clear influence on Frammartino's film is Vittorio de Seta's documentary work from the 1950's...

See for instance this - Vittorio De Seta's I dimenticati (1959)...

The eight-minute, one-take shot mentioned here is one of the best I have seen in cinema in ages. I went from chuckling to howling to cheering as it unfolded. Just amazing. I see reference in this thread that it took two weeks to shoot that? Not surprising. I am very curious to do further reading about the actual production of this film, and especially that one shot with the dog, if such exists?

Overall, the film had a serene, calming, almost Zen-like effect on me. I wish more films were made like this. The standoff-ish camera, long takes, and occasional pans reminded me a bit of HHH's films.