In the last post, I (along with Rodrigo) emphasized how a story may be harmed by an over explanation. But, sometimes, what we see is the total lack of explanations because there's no way to explain somethings. Maybe that's why we cannot clearly see the characters here at the beginning - they and their lives and reasons are not truly recognizable to us.
In the everyday life, each little detail has a part on our perception of life, even if we are used to pass through our routine without noticing them. The key that ignites the car. A cereal absorbing the milk. A faceless person near us waiting for a doctor appointment. And so things go on, life goes on, we go on. Until we don't care to keep going anymore. There's a million ways to stop caring or even being able to endure it. Mikael Haneke, in The Seventh Continent (Der Siebent Kontinent), his debut feature film, shows us one of this ways, based on a real family, and he does that in a surgically manner. But despite an aseptic view, this movie is a emotional punch on the stomach - and my reactions to it were truly physical.
I've seen the same happening with people near me´(sorry if I cannot be more explicit, but believe me, I'm talking about something really sad and hurtful). It is horrid. And we try to explain, to reach a reason for such a choice, but there's none. Every explanation is futile, and Haneke is a master in telling us that. Judgement is not useful here also.
After the last scene, I turned off the TV and looked around me. Nothing made sense for a few minutes. Slowly, life was infused into me again, but I'm still in a suspended state, one that allows me to notice every detail. The meat that I was slicing for dinner (one that I'm guessing I wont be able to eat). My fingers tapping the computer keys. Distinct sounds outside my window. My head throbbing after such a hard journey. I think it will take a while longer to go back to an less disturbed sense of life.
This week with movies wasn't easy. First, the dreadful tragedy of Oldboy... after, the nonsense of A Second Chance, and, now, a life that we can judge ordinarily good, but that is anything but. Still, it is just because of a deeper sense of life that I have chose to spend a big part of my time with cinema and its amazing films, isn't it? And more is coming, I'm sure.
| The Seventh Continent (Der Sibient Kontinent). Directed by Michael Haneke. With: Birgit Doll, Dieter Berner, Leni Tanzer. Writers: Michael Haneke, Johanna Teicht. Austria, 1989, 104 min., Mono, Color. |
These things about routine are very real, even though sometimes we don't pay attention to them. And routine is necessary, but it can also be a silent killer when you loose the line between comfort and discouragement.
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