I do not like this movie, but I do recognize that behind it there is a filmmaker with an approach to cinema worthy of respect. This is not a slow film at all, make no mistake. It is not even observational: it is an audiovisual experiment that refuses to give us access to the little drama it narrates... if we can even speak of narration or drama. Although I liked the images, and I sensed something original and different in the director's discourse, I hardly knew what was going on, so I looked for information when the short film ended.
I never imagined that the film is about a young woman with epilepsy who has been cured and is preparing for a new life. It would be necessary to know something about medicine, or about the tests that are applied to the adolescent to understand the drama. However, apart from this lack of exposition, I liked the girl, the children, games, and practices around her.
What I find annoying and sometimes unbearable is director Luise Donschen's reluctance to open up her world to us, her decision to shut it to the viewer's appreciation, her strategy of making things happen out of the frame (for example, the swimming pool scene, or the projection that the children of the institution watch and smiled at), to the point of creating a distance that did not induce me to meditate on what I had seen, because I did not know what I was seeing.
I ended up meditating on Donschen, and for me the movie turned out to be a narcissistic exercise. I don't think I would be interested in seeing a Luise Donschen film again. And I don't know if anyone will want to invest in another psycho-mental trip like this one. But for one viewing, it was worth the time invested.
I never imagined that the film is about a young woman with epilepsy who has been cured and is preparing for a new life. It would be necessary to know something about medicine, or about the tests that are applied to the adolescent to understand the drama. However, apart from this lack of exposition, I liked the girl, the children, games, and practices around her.
What I find annoying and sometimes unbearable is director Luise Donschen's reluctance to open up her world to us, her decision to shut it to the viewer's appreciation, her strategy of making things happen out of the frame (for example, the swimming pool scene, or the projection that the children of the institution watch and smiled at), to the point of creating a distance that did not induce me to meditate on what I had seen, because I did not know what I was seeing.
I ended up meditating on Donschen, and for me the movie turned out to be a narcissistic exercise. I don't think I would be interested in seeing a Luise Donschen film again. And I don't know if anyone will want to invest in another psycho-mental trip like this one. But for one viewing, it was worth the time invested.
