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At some point in our lives we all discover how much more beautiful the world is if you look at it through a piece of a broken bottle glass. Things become sharper, with crisper contrasts and more vibrant colors...Aberdeen is easily the best movie of the last two years to hit the world scene. This is a pretty impressive achievement from the young director. So why all this talk about beautification?
With this film Hans Petter Moland - its director, makes not step, but leap into greatness. So what that this leap falls a bit short in certain areas where there is no substitute for real life experience - he does so many things right that he is almost there, and about how many other directors can you say that? Certainly not a single one from Hollywood.
The film will captivate you and you will keep coming back to it again and again. The five talents - the director and his four actors - work in such incredible synergy that it seems they are simply going through their lives. Stellan Skarsgård, Lena Headey, Ian Hart and Charlotte Rampling all deserve nothing but the highest praise. It is such incredible pleasure to watch the great actors - how did Molard manage to get such wonderful team together?
The film's fault is the subtle sin of commission... unfortunately. I always say that the decline of Hollywood started when some "smart" man suggested that ordinary people are not interested in the lives and problems of *ordinary* people. So we all have witnessed the increasing in its ugly intensity panopticon of idiots, "super-heroes", deviants of all kinds - anything but your normal everyday folks. When it came to coloring real life, Hollywood went full hog. All stops were removed.
The Europeans have mostly continued their tradition of examining the only truly endless source of inspiration – the human soul. They managed to keep that ugly Americanism at bay for some time, but their defenses were not watertight, and their determination started falling apart as the voices of the dollar and frank and mark started being more and more demanding. So little by little they too began their move towards the beautification.
Aberdeen is a road movie. In that it is in a good company – The Kings of the Road, Alice and the Cities, and my favorite – Wild Strawberries…yes, I know, some would resent calling it road movie, and a strange company indeed, and no, I do not consider the Easy Rider all that great.
It is the great tribute to Aberdeen that I intuitively compare it to the Wild Strawberries – what greater statement to the young director’s talent one might need? This is good, no, make it great, start.
But where Bergman simply quietly examines the human mind and thus creates a timeless masterpiece, Molard finds that simply standing on his two legs doesn’t give him enough stability. He reaches for something more. He reaches for effects. And he puts them where they are really not needed, like putting a Victorian buckle on a beautiful Louis XVI dress – it destroys the balance and accomplishes nothing positive.
Sure enough, his sins of commission are extremely minor, and only become noticeable if you examine his beautiful work from the position of the extreme demand – and how many films would stand such scrutiny? But they are still a bit disappointing, for the film didn’t really need any such artificial coloring – it has enough internal strength to stand on his own.
Some time after we discover the beauty of the broken bottle glass, we inevitably come back to our senses, we realize that the soft colors and half-tones possess more interest and depth than the simplistic hard transitions. I feel that Molard will be coming to that realization too, for the half-tones are indeed what the movie could have used to greater extent.
With all these minor faults – and take my word for it – they ARE minor – the film still shines. So it doesn’t yet possess the perfection of Bergman’s work, or the sheer abstinent narrative beauty of the Kings of the Road, but it grabs you, draws you in and keeps there, and its rough edges are more than easily overlooked.
A true gem, not fully polished yet, but a masterpiece of the highest caliber.
I am glad that every now and then the world still manages to put its act together, get away from its daily hustle and quietly produce things like that unforgettable trip to Aberdeen.
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Topic - The broken bottle glass of Aberdeen... - Victor Khomenko 08:58:06 05/05/01 (3)
- Wow, a great review! - TAFKA Steve 19:05:02 05/05/01 (2)
- Re: Wow, a great review! - Victor Khomenko 21:27:18 05/05/01 (1)
- Re: Wow, a great review! - TAFKA Steve 08:48:13 05/06/01 (0)
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