Day one: Another Earth (March, 10)

Last week, I saw the end of a project that took so much of my time and energy for almost an year. It was, of course, related to movies, but in an academic environment. It was not the time for it, I guess. However, after so much time dedicated to somethng that looked so promising,  I just dind't know what to do with myself in front of an empty canvas. This way, a new project was mandatory in order to not lose the habit of thinking (and writing) about movies in my everyday life.

So One Movie a Year appeared as an idea and here I am, trying to turn it into reality. 

I thought about it as a project maybe for a near future, but yesterday a movie changed my mind and brought me here.

Another  Earth, directed by Mike Cahill in 2011, was indicated to me by Malu, a wizard in the movies' world. Despite her young age, she knows what she is talking about. And her indication paid off in more ways than I had expected to. 

I don't know if my copy was defective, but some images were distorced, what added to the estrangement that I felt since the first scene. I hadn't read any comentary or critic about the movie, so I did not know what to expect. And it was a pleasent surprise at last. 

As this is a first post, I should clarify that I'll try to avoid any spoilers in m commments. Moreover, tell the story or analyse the movie is not what I wnat here. I'd rather tell you about what I felt and the many references that came to me by watching a movie, in the same way that I did in my other blog with Amèlie. 

It is very difficult to describe what I felt with this movie. Estrangement, as I said before. Enchantment. Surprise. Sadness, great and heartbreaking. Doubt. Enchantment again and, at last, gratitude for meeting this story in this  moment of my life. The movie's universe is an expert of bringing the right films in the right times, I must say. 

I remembered something that I heard in a lecture last week. A professor, talking about images, said that we can't capture it to create analysis in details and objectivity. He gave the audience the example of a burtterfly: in order to study it, scientists pin it to a board. But it is not how a reasearcher of moving images works. The way, he said, is to let the butterfly move around us and be grateful for the glimpses that it gave to us. 

Cinema's images, moving and sounding images, are like that, I think. We try to dissect a film, its story, its production, its filmmaking, and forget about  other possibilities: the glimpses of life that we are not always able to capture logically. 

And that's one of my thoughts with Another Earth. There were a lot more, but they are gone or are yet to be. The movie, at the same time, is almost a thesis about how we know ourselves through otherness, but it wisely runs away of falling into the trap of a cold argumentation. It estabilishes multiple relations to different aspects of life. especially those that we confront in loss, pain, regret. And, in doing so, the movie talks about hope, in a very no sentimentalist way. It is true, despite my emotional post. 

Still amazed, I give you here these few impressions about such a beautiful movie. Have you seen it? Tell me your thoughts about it. A movie is built in us not only with our own reminiscences, but also with other views and opinions. 

May we have a nice trip! A happy movie year for us all.

Another Earth. Directed by Mike Cahill. Stars: Brit Marling, William Marporther, Matthew Lee-Earlbach. Writers: Mike Cahill, Brit Marling. US 2011, 92 min,. Dolby, color (DVD).

PS: I couldn't end this post without a post scriptum. And this one is to remark that english is not my native language - you already was able to realize that, I'm sure. But movies and english are a mutual project for me, so this journey is really a dare in more than one way.