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Caveh Zahedi,
Amanda Field
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Caveh Zahedi
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: Not Rated
: Documentary, Biographies
: 81 min.
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At turns humorous, touching and revealing, In the Bathtub of the World is the video diary of a year in the life of independent filmmaker Caveh Zahedi and his real-life girlfriend Amanda (Mandy) Field. While Caveh pledges to film at least one minute per day, Mandy resists the persistent camera in her face. We follow the couple's random daily experiences, from the mundane to the sublime, peppered by the ups and downs of life as a maverick filmmaker. Caveh struggles with his reading addiction, his prostitute addiction and occasionally gives in to junk food (with dire consequences). Caveh and Mandy attend readings by John Ashbery (whose poem provided the film's titles), Nobel-prize winner Czeslaw Milosz, grapple with family emergencies, relationship challenges and days when nothing happens at all.
The DVD includes commentary from Caveh Zahedi, Amanda Field & Thomas Logoreci, along with the 27-minute featurette I WAS POSSESSED BY GOD and the 20-minute featurette MANDY'S BIRTHDAY (available as a pair for Video-on-Demand).
The DVD includes commentary from Caveh Zahedi, Amanda Field & Thomas Logoreci, along with the 27-minute featurette I Was Possessed by God and the 20-minute featurette Mandy's Birthday (available as a pair on-demand).
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| The Year of The Caveh
by taewonyu
May 3, 2005 - 1:51 PM PDT
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6 out of 6 members found this review helpful
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"In the Bathtub of the World" resembles, on its surface, a home made video diary and by definition that is exactly what it is but beneath its humble façade I found a deeply moving work of art. Committing himself to film everyday, Caveh flagrantly reveals all: his body, his obsessions, his drugs, his relationships, all of the mundane and petty gestures of an artist at life and work. This process of compulsive disclosure has elicited judgments of the director as a narcissist, dismissing the film as a crudely executed home movie (and perhaps not a "real" movie at all). But I think what is actually revealed is our culturally bound reflex to categorize the undefinable to the nearest available negative context, for "In the Bathtub of the World" is an artfully executed film of great beauty that only looks like a home movie, just as an early Daniel Johnston song is a transcendent work of art that rejoices unapologetically in its limited sonic quality.
"In the Bathtub of the World" moves briskly, accumulating moments, sublime and mundane, scenes of high comedy and painfully raw emotions, but what runs throughout the film is the charm and all-or-nothing bravado of this exceptionally committed director. In Caveh Zahedi, we find a willing conduit for transformation and through his unflinching self-exposure, a universal story emerges. Tiny stories and fleeting feelings, an entire year of this condensed to an 81 minute narrative shows the peculiar elegance inherent in all of our lives, as if there was an "editor" at work nudging us through archetypal passages. These random events, undeciphered in the day to day are woven together to form a poetic essay on the sanctity of the commonplace.
I feel strongly about this film, I would list it among my favorites of all time. I've never seen a movie like this before. From afar it looks raggedy and unrecognizable but regarding it with an open mind, allowing your boundaries of art and life to dissolve and what unfolds is a beautiful work of intimacy and courage from a singular artist.
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.09)
33 Votes
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