This Czech short, a little under a half hour in running time, is one of five films by Germans and Czechs that were commissioned under the loose thematic of decelerating time (if my translation was accurate). They've been presented together and separately, when together the project is called Breathless: Dominance of the Moment.
Some ordinary diary entries are narrated whilst we see images from a small Czech neighbourhood where the camera pirouettes elegantly. Sometimes the journal text and the images line up, sometimes there's a misalignment but in an uncanny or interesting way, and sometimes they appear separate. Everything is absolutely ordinary, yet the ordinary is presented as extraordinary. Every day for example, is an anniversary of something personally momentous from some time, even if we don't know of what, every labour a prayer. The Mitteleuropean landscape is too bland for most location scouts, but happily presented here. The house is full of utter kitsch but somehow seems to fit together, and the people that inhabit the spaces are comfortably dressed and cheerful. Although much of the information in the diary is in some sense nonsense, the general feeling is one of acceptance of the moment and harmless credulity. My personal favourite moments were of a silly but charming picture of a whale catching the sunlight, and a mention of prayers down by the ferns on midsummer's night. It seemed to be half an hour where I could suspend judgement and watch characters who have also in general, suspended judgement in order to live life in a fluid manner.
I once said that a film about ordinary people could not be made, because ordinary people don't create art, all artists are in some sense extraordinary and speak of themselves and others like them in the main. This film is however a counter thesis, a superbly well-made document of ordinary peaceable people going about their lives and appreciating moments. It seems very special indeed somehow.
Some ordinary diary entries are narrated whilst we see images from a small Czech neighbourhood where the camera pirouettes elegantly. Sometimes the journal text and the images line up, sometimes there's a misalignment but in an uncanny or interesting way, and sometimes they appear separate. Everything is absolutely ordinary, yet the ordinary is presented as extraordinary. Every day for example, is an anniversary of something personally momentous from some time, even if we don't know of what, every labour a prayer. The Mitteleuropean landscape is too bland for most location scouts, but happily presented here. The house is full of utter kitsch but somehow seems to fit together, and the people that inhabit the spaces are comfortably dressed and cheerful. Although much of the information in the diary is in some sense nonsense, the general feeling is one of acceptance of the moment and harmless credulity. My personal favourite moments were of a silly but charming picture of a whale catching the sunlight, and a mention of prayers down by the ferns on midsummer's night. It seemed to be half an hour where I could suspend judgement and watch characters who have also in general, suspended judgement in order to live life in a fluid manner.
I once said that a film about ordinary people could not be made, because ordinary people don't create art, all artists are in some sense extraordinary and speak of themselves and others like them in the main. This film is however a counter thesis, a superbly well-made document of ordinary peaceable people going about their lives and appreciating moments. It seems very special indeed somehow.