“Silent Light” is an stunning piece of work, seriously. It’s breathtaking. It reminds us of Terrence Malick’s graceful work in “Days of Heaven.” Years from now we’re going to look back and kick ourselves for not putting it higher on our (my) Top 2008 list (even New York critics screened it in the third week of December so in the interest of fairness and not top-loading our picks with recent, year-end picks, we only put it as low or high, as we could).
Did we mention Martin Scorsese has endorsed the film, saying he was ” amazed by SILENT LIGHT – the setting, the language, the delicacy of the interactions between the people on screen, the drama of redemption. And most of all by Carlos Reygadas’s [“Battle in Heaven,” “Japón”] extraordinarily rich sense of cinema, evident in every frame. A surprising picture, and a very moving one as well.”
How well said. There’s a knowing-ness, a serene sense of calm and an almost eerie, hand-of-god touch to his quietly and silently moving camera – it’s otherworldly. We find it sometimes hard to articulate what was so gripping about the film we feel so overwhelmed by it at times.
But we wrote around the holidays, “Centering on a a very devout Mennonite facing a spiritual and moral crisis in the form of wanton adultery, Reygada’s marvelous ‘Light’ is easily the most aptly titled film of the year as it is wholly characterized by a gorgeous natural light that blankets the film like a godly sheen and a disquieting silence that pervades and acts as the soundtrack to the characters tortured inner thoughts and dramas.”
The Village Voice’s Scott Foundas caught up with Reygadas this week as the film opened up in New York and he also notes that film, aside from even the subject matter, has a very “spiritual” feel. It’s kind of incredible to note that Reygadas is only 37-years-old. He directs like he’s a seasoned pro.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview, but you should read the full thing and definitely move mountains and go out of your way to see it.
It could be said that all of your films are stories of men who find themselves torn between what they believe, or have been taught to believe, and what they feel inside. What is it about this tension that interests you?
“I think we live in tension, and of course the essence of happiness is trying to bring that tension to a minimum. But that particular tension that you have described is exactly the one I have felt in my own life, and although I think I’ve come to terms with it in a rather acceptable way, still, it is there. Feeling, and what we think is right— what our values are — are very often divorced. Or they overlap in some ways and not in others.”