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Movie #8 On Body and Soul

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Dee
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Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:20 pm

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Watching this weekend!

I recommend you go into this film with as little knowledge as possible, girls. Don't read any synopsis and definitely don't watch the trailer. The experience will be that much sweeter if you can discover everything as you go.

The film has just been nominated for Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

I hope you will love it as much as I do. :x

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NurseRatched
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Fri Feb 23, 2018 6:59 am

:x Thanks for the tip, Dee!

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Lori
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Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:38 am

Basically, that seems to be how I live my life!

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Dee
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Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:59 am

Best way! :08:

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Lori
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Sat Feb 24, 2018 7:23 pm

Really a very interesting movie. I almost bailed in the first 18 minutes, but on the recommendation and reassurance of Dee hung in there and it was worth it. I am really still letting it mill about in my head. The characters were presented in such an interesting stilted way, yet unfolded throughout the movie in a very slow intriguing fashion. As I sit here, I realize I am a bit more bonded to their idiosyncrasies than I realized. I may just relate to the female role a wee bit as I am a deep reactor to my personal environment. I think I will let someone else go first here with the inner workings of the film. I was taken by its style - I don't think I've ever seen a film with quite this bent.

Fabulous scene here with emotion bursting forth at long last...

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NurseRatched
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Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:10 pm

:03: I can't get past the cows. Must be my state of mind. I'm going to give it a fresh start in the AM!

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Dee
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Sun Feb 25, 2018 2:54 am

Oh, you little delicate flowers... :x :x I haven't thought of warning you about the slaughterhouse setting... perhaps because it just didn't affect me in that way, so I didn't think to say. I did find the initial images very strong and compelling and sobering but then I looked for the meaning why we were shown all this, and that fascinated me right from the start. I'm still processing the meaning of the setting and the symbolism of it all. I think it's visually very powerful and there is an awful lot here to explore.

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DawnFae
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Sun Feb 25, 2018 6:19 am

Thank you Dee for having suggested this powerful and in its unique way beautiful story / movie.
I loved your review Lori and can only agree 100% with you on the the aspects you touched with your delicate, poetic hands :x !

Yeah, the slaughterhouse scene in the beginning was quite the shocker but we need to exactly see and feel what the consequences of wanting more meat on our tables actually mean in reality. Lots of people don't know what is going on in the abattoirs and almost nothing about the appalling conditions cattle live in before they meet their demise.

We can hope for at least a fast and painless death for the animals but do we really know for sure?
After death, the dismantling of the body parts is still a shocker and it is strongly contrasted by the peaceful and majestic dream sequences of the free and gracious deer.

The human brain is constantly comparing things and complex feelings / emotions to be able to learn new things / connections and take decisions (also based on past memories related to similar situations / contexts), so the contrast between the peaceful dream world and the reality of the slaughterhouse creates a powerful tension that is a catalyst for change in thinking patterns.

I felt the metaphysical hints and implications of the first half of the movie didn't get explored deeply enough and that was sad because it promised so much.

Shy people, broken people and their psychological problems had a front and center seat in this unusual story. How far we truly are from living our beautiful dreams is heartbreaking but it does not mean that we cannot try to make them come true.

The girl looks like a shy "Luna Lovegood". Perhaps she had to disassociate from her feelings to survive in a brutal world. The man is older and has his own handicaps and issues. Yet, these very different people are brought together by "fate" and have been offered a chance to end their loneliness and have a happier life.

The way they made the couple to be discover that they were having the same dreams was a bit of a stretch (the used plot device was a bit awkward :-)) but it wasn't the main focus of the story so we glossed over it to come to the meaty part of the plot (no pun intended).
Discovering such an "otherworldly" connection to a stranger is surely a very intriguing and perhaps unsettling revelation to Maria and Endre but it also works as a nice metaphor for "people who are meant to be together".

Some scenes in Maria's journey to awakening her own senses and feelings were pretty graphic but sometimes the end can justify the means. Maria faced whatever shock therapy she needed to bring about a "healing to her soul" with courage. She was determined to solve her fear and repulsion to touch and did her "homework" to get there. There was a kind of pragmatic approach to the program she followed to cure her handicap that was endearing but at times also painful to watch because it revealed a heartbreaking desperation under the distanced and quiet mask she wore in public.

Endre showed a good nature and great patience in wanting to deepen his newly discovered bond to Maria. He certainly treated her with respect and a disarming openness. I did not really like to see him have a one night stand with another woman. On the other hand he was also struggling with the frustration of not breaking through to Maria and he probably came to the conclusion that even though their bond was a gift from heaven, the reality of Maria's condition stood as a painful obstacle he did not know how to overcome.
Things take time and usually when changes are triggered and are in the process of being created, people lose hope and get discouraged...

Maria with her extraordinary observation skills and super memory was surely an intriguing woman for Endre. Their relationship was not solely based on sexual attraction but on an unusual and mysterious bond I wish would have been explored more thoroughly!

The chain reaction that pushed Maria to slit her wrists was painful to watch. I was thinking to myself, what a waste, such a beautiful and intelligent young woman fought hard to hold onto a meaningful bond with another human being but got thwarted by past trauma.

Luckily love and the strong desire to hold onto the special bond and the joy of being connected with another won and the two outcasts had their happy ending: they could make their beautiful dream a reality. They had to go through their painful shortcomings, past traumas and painful emotions to bridge the two worlds: the one where the deer are so free and happy with the tough daily reality in a cold and sometimes brutal world.

Notice the similarities between the two pictures: both tableaux have the central element / symbol cold in them, the dream has snow silently falling but the deer despite the cold around were perfectly happy and at peace. By contrast, the real world has a vicious and permeating cold that comes from a lack of empathy towards other human beings and of the mindless and cruel predatory nature of man.
It is a lack of deep and loving connection that makes this real world a living hell...

The actors were so very natural that I didn't have the impression they were acting. Such a silent communication of powerful emotions and complex patterns of the psyche is a tour de force.

The movie deserves more watchings.

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Dee
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Sun Feb 25, 2018 7:12 am

What a beautiful review, DF. I'm going to have to rewatch certain parts before I respond.

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NurseRatched
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Sun Feb 25, 2018 9:28 am

Really interesting movie! This was definitely a unique plot, which is so rare. I think I like the director! She enjoys worlds with a lot of contrast (the deer in their tranquil dream land forest, the brutality of the slaughterhouse) & she let this movie slowly burn. A lot of questions arise throughout.

DF:
The way they made the couple to be discover that they were having the same dreams was a bit of a stretch (the used plot device was a bit awkward :-)) but it wasn't the main focus of the story so we glossed over it to come to the meaty part of the plot (no pun intended).
Discovering such an "otherworldly" connection to a stranger is surely a very intriguing and perhaps unsettling revelation to Maria and Endre but it also works as a nice metaphor for "people who are meant to be together"
.
I definitely agree on the discovery of their shared dreams. And I wish they would have delved into that plane a bit more.

Maria seemed solidly on the autism spectrum; she is brilliant, quiet, super memory, doesn't like physical touch & awkward in her social interactions. So endearing, though! Her quest to develop a bridge from what she was feeling inside to a loving relationship was at times very comical to me. The scene in the record store & her laying on the grass when the sprinklers start up :72:

DF:
On the other hand he was also struggling with the frustration of not breaking through to Maria and he probably came to the conclusion that even though their bond was a gift from heaven, the reality of Maria's condition stood as a painful obstacle he did not know how to overcome.
He was a patient, kind man, & really the most likeable man in the whole movie. I felt really sad when he told her he didn't want to pursue their relationship, and the aftermath was brutal. But it all ended so well.

I liked the sparse, slow scenes; it's an artful film with the shadows, light and window reflections.

I'll be interested to read more from you all. The slaughterhouse is a strange back drop to a love story, for sure.

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Dee
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Sun Feb 25, 2018 12:26 pm

Let me just start with saying how happy it makes me that you've all watched the film (and I'm hoping Moonchime will join us soon too). I appreciate it's not an easy film to digest on a first watch, especially as it is in a foreign language and the culture is so different from your own. Then comes the setting of the slaughterhouse, another challenge with all its explicit realism. But I do hope that, overall, you will all feel it was worth investing your time in this strange world and story, as it is so unlike any other you have come across.

I adore this film, and consider it a masterpiece after three watches. It has all the ingredients that make a good movie in my view. In no particular order:

A fascinating new concept
Believable dialogue
Original characters
Slow pace
Beautiful cinematography
Unexpected elements
Poetry
Tender humanity
Warmth
Humour, comical moments
A touch of magical/surreal/inexplicable
Excellent soundtrack and original score
Acting that doesn't feel acting*


*I completely agree with DF that the acting in this movie was just like that. Utterly natural.

And most importantly I need to feel an overwhelming HONESTY about the whole thing. That this story means something very real to everybody working on it. I need that to radiate from a film. And I think this film has delivered on all these fronts.

I will carry on but gotta do it in smaller segments, as life calls.







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Dee
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Sun Feb 25, 2018 3:21 pm

I tend to agree with DF about the relevance of the slaughterhouse in the story and all the super realism of the meat processing. The film is heavily focused on the duality of the body and the soul, that is driven home with very strong visuals. Was it necessary to be so explicit about it? I think so. In sheer contrast to the ethereal poetry of the dream deer scenes, that felt just as real but painted with so much light and breathiness and freedom. The slaughterhouse was dark, clinical, running like clockwork, and all that blood... our life source... flowing into the drains and efficiently and promptly cleaned away.

The procedure of the slaughter and the processing has become a matter of fact, an everyday routine for all the people working there. It had to be. They weren't disrespectful to the animals. They simply did their part of the job of meat production. The film wasn't making a judgment about the slaughterhouse institute or meat production. It was simply presenting it in a super realistic way. To the extent that the sequences were actually filmed in a working abbatoirs. I guess its role was partially to create a counterpoint to the deer scenes, partially to show how people can get used to everything, and how detached we can be from the flesh, from our own bodies.

There was of course another aspect: how Maria was going to bleed herself out not unlike those cows in the abbatoirs. A body is just something to work with. Or in case of Maria and Endre, their bodies were something they were imprisoned in, with all their limitations, malfunctions, disabilities. However, their beautiful souls were allowed to roam free in their dreams. And through these dreams they could connect to each other.

I didn't mind that we had no further explanation of what these dreams were. In fact I liked that it remained a bit of a mystery. And the fact they stopped after they had confessed their love for one another, suggested the interpretation DF provided, the dreams were a manifestation that the two of them were "meant to be together". Their souls were calling out to one another. Two lonely people who needed and deserved happiness, love, a real connection to another person.

Yes, the whole business of the psychiatrist's interviews and how the dreams got to be revealed, were a bit far fetched and comical, but I loved all that. I thought the comedy elements of the film were really funny, and the psychiatrist herself was a brilliant character. And the elderly cleaning lady and her answer to what she's up to in her dreams... :57: Maria's childhood psychiatrist trying to steer her to see a doctor better qualified to deal with adults on the Autistic spectrum... great comical moments. I should add though, that this guy always managed to give her perfect advice after all.

Most of all, I loved how Endre and Maria, these two beautiful damaged souls have found each other and healing in their growing love. Ultimately, this was a love film, above anything else. And it was about courage. Courage to open up, to reach out to each other. Just wonderful.

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