Carlos Reygadas - Japón (2002)

“A man leaves Mexico City for the remote countryside where he intends to end his life. There he finds lodging with an old Indian widow, Ascen, in her ramshackle home overlooking a desolate canyon. In the vastness of this wild, breathtaking natural landscape, the old woman's infinite humanity reawekens his dulled senses and desires. Inspired by the visionary cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, Carlos Reygadas' extraordinary debut feature -stunningly shot in panoramic cinemascope – is an enigmatic and mesmerising meditation on the themes of death an rebirth, human strengths and frailty, and love and faith”. – DVD cover




A painter from the big city goes to a remote canyon to commit suicide. To reach some calmness he stays at the farmstead of Ascen, an old religious woman. Although but a few words are spoken love grows (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322824/)



Shot in Super Cinemascope without artificial light and not satisfied with merely conveying a message or telling a story, Reygadas wants the audience to feel; he inspires vivid if sometimes uncomfortable sensations in the viewer, and the strange, earthy journey that he takes us on is not easily forgotten. Not one of the actors is a trained professional, yet the young director manages to draw incredible performances from his leads, often in very tense and difficult scenes. (-Film Festival brochure)



The important thing is not the story (including logical character development) but the way it is told. The movie has the air of grandezza sometimes, it is the opposite of naturalism, but thus it is much more like „reality` than a couple of Dogma-style films. When you are alone in nature, well, what else will you do but admire the wonderful landscape and small events happening therein for a couple of minutes, trying to absorb it as intensely as possible? As a result, there are quite lengthy moments in the film, which might repel some people but that's a pity because it means that they are unable to enjoy the immediate experience of beauty. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322824/usercomments)



"I find that film titles tend to be too descriptive and that they should be more evocative.Of course a word can evoke diffrerent things for different people, but it's just an invitation for the spectator to share the film with me on different levels" (- Carlos Reygadas)



Music of the film :
Shostakovich 15th Symphony
Bach - St Mathew Passion
The Arvo Pärt works used are "Miserere" near the beginning of the film when they are travelling in a truck and "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" near the end of the film showing the aftermath of the accident..



About the director :
Born in Mexico in 1971. He fell in love with cinema as a teenager after accidentally discovering the films of Tarkovsky. He studied international law at the University of Mexico, then went to London, where he studied for a Master's degree with a specialization in armed conflict. At age 27 deciding to change careers, he moved to Brussels and applied to INSAAS to study cinema. He then returned to the sites of his childhood vacations to undertake the ambitious "Japon" , his most confident and impressive feature debut, which was hailed as a masterpiece in many festivals.






Rapidshare.de (16 * 100 MB + 5.96 MB)

http://rapidshare.de/files/33688773/Reygadas-Japon.part01.rar
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