RED: End of Everything!
a commentary
Warning: A Spoiler! the Font color is red to pay tribute to the film. it's an artistic statement that should not hinder the reader to continue reading the post.
The clip above is the last scene and closure of the highly acclaimed Finale of Three Colors: Trilogy (1993-1994), entitled RED. I was thrilled and considerably warmhearted after watching it. I consider it as one of the greatest film that i have ever seen and i have a prospect that it could reach my TOP 20 films for 2008.
Krzysztof Kieslowki pronounced cinematic experience in a fundamental experience, quite different from the minimalist concept prevailing nowadays. It shows the essence of forming bonds and answers basic questions for human beings. The film asks questions which are both philosophically and perceptively intriguing. I can almost hear my heart beating during silent moments, where Valetine(Irene Jacob) and Kern(Jean-Louis Trintignant) paused during a conversation. It humanizes the heart, consumes the soul with introspection of oneself.
As the film continuously linger in my mind, i can't help to think how Kiarostami would compare to Kieslowki. I seem to find a connection between him and Kieslowki in terms of how basic their themes are. Here is Kieslowki featuring essence of brotherhood in his THREE COLORS: RED (1994), and Kiarostami exploring the inescapable truth of human existence in his A TASTE OF CHERRY(1997), both lyrically played on screen and carefully accentuates the audience into a parlance of piercing introspection.
I call them, INTROSPECTIVE FILMS: a brand that suit their purpose for the audience. It so amazing that the lyrical development of the films is so consuming, the audience asked themselves if whether they are legitimate to watch the movies or not. It is such an inescapable fixation, a noteworthy cinematic experience these INTROSPECTIVE FILMS bring us. They are as if messages from the Supreme Universe, exploring the reciprocity of humans as beings.
In a way, these films are transcendental and important to man's exploration of the new found faith. I believe in what the late Pope John Paul II said about the postmodern society in his book CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE. He said that, today man has found Faith again though he may never understand it. What does this corollary mean? Is this Faith explored in the language of art in cinema? Does cinema shows the value of such corollary? Does cinema reflects this inherent ideology?
I posted more questions back in my mind about how cinema has evolved from the narrative of the times to the present ventures on the lyrical cinematography. INTROSPECTIVE FILMS are fundamental nowadays. Films nowadays are becoming more and more descriptive of its fundamentals: Existence and being. Some may call it critical realism, but i call it Neo-existentialism. Some may highlight Neo-existentialism as the culmination of a postmodernism epistemology and reflective ontological grounds of existentialism, but i simply put is a the new forming concept of films of this NEW age, not even the Postmodern world can describe. Have we moved on from the Postmodern gaze? Have we transcended from the commodity of the Self, or the intertextuality of meaning, or the depletion of metanarrative? Are we in the Post Postmodern age?
New and newer forms of cinema emerge for the past few years after the turn of the century. 1994, when THREE COLORS: RED was introduced, seemed very far. The influence of Pulp Fiction(1993) reached the level of cliche, though Kiarostamis' THE WIND WILL CARRY US(1999) influence is truly reflected in other notable works by some contemporary 'auteur' like Charles Mingiu.
Cinema captured these changes from the very start.
Krzysztof Kieslowki pronounced cinematic experience in a fundamental experience, quite different from the minimalist concept prevailing nowadays. It shows the essence of forming bonds and answers basic questions for human beings. The film asks questions which are both philosophically and perceptively intriguing. I can almost hear my heart beating during silent moments, where Valetine(Irene Jacob) and Kern(Jean-Louis Trintignant) paused during a conversation. It humanizes the heart, consumes the soul with introspection of oneself.
As the film continuously linger in my mind, i can't help to think how Kiarostami would compare to Kieslowki. I seem to find a connection between him and Kieslowki in terms of how basic their themes are. Here is Kieslowki featuring essence of brotherhood in his THREE COLORS: RED (1994), and Kiarostami exploring the inescapable truth of human existence in his A TASTE OF CHERRY(1997), both lyrically played on screen and carefully accentuates the audience into a parlance of piercing introspection.
I call them, INTROSPECTIVE FILMS: a brand that suit their purpose for the audience. It so amazing that the lyrical development of the films is so consuming, the audience asked themselves if whether they are legitimate to watch the movies or not. It is such an inescapable fixation, a noteworthy cinematic experience these INTROSPECTIVE FILMS bring us. They are as if messages from the Supreme Universe, exploring the reciprocity of humans as beings.
In a way, these films are transcendental and important to man's exploration of the new found faith. I believe in what the late Pope John Paul II said about the postmodern society in his book CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE. He said that, today man has found Faith again though he may never understand it. What does this corollary mean? Is this Faith explored in the language of art in cinema? Does cinema shows the value of such corollary? Does cinema reflects this inherent ideology?
I posted more questions back in my mind about how cinema has evolved from the narrative of the times to the present ventures on the lyrical cinematography. INTROSPECTIVE FILMS are fundamental nowadays. Films nowadays are becoming more and more descriptive of its fundamentals: Existence and being. Some may call it critical realism, but i call it Neo-existentialism. Some may highlight Neo-existentialism as the culmination of a postmodernism epistemology and reflective ontological grounds of existentialism, but i simply put is a the new forming concept of films of this NEW age, not even the Postmodern world can describe. Have we moved on from the Postmodern gaze? Have we transcended from the commodity of the Self, or the intertextuality of meaning, or the depletion of metanarrative? Are we in the Post Postmodern age?
New and newer forms of cinema emerge for the past few years after the turn of the century. 1994, when THREE COLORS: RED was introduced, seemed very far. The influence of Pulp Fiction(1993) reached the level of cliche, though Kiarostamis' THE WIND WILL CARRY US(1999) influence is truly reflected in other notable works by some contemporary 'auteur' like Charles Mingiu.
Cinema captured these changes from the very start.
