| Brrrr.... |
|
| written by TaoG |
December 18, 2006 - 10:14 PM PST |
|
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
|
| This movie literally left me cold - physically, while intriguingly bringing to life far-reaching Inuit mythos. It is stark. Primal. Harsh. Immersiviely and so, with performances that are alive and truly rendered. The cinematography is absolutely beautiful and brilliant in it's use of an unobtrusive documentary feel. I suggest a parka or a blanket, and or central heating. |
| Best Inuit movie I've ever seen :) |
|
| written by nate |
April 13, 2004 - 3:00 PM PDT |
|
3 out of 6 members found this review helpful
|
Wow! It's really long, it's in subtitled Inuit, and it's stunningly good. If it were just presented as an ethnography is would be well worth watching, but the plot is captivating as well.
This is definitely a film coming from a culture with a well-developed but very different sense of story. The pacing, plot devices, and character development work fabulously, but are unlike anything I've seen before.
I'm trying to come up with comparisons, but failing. To me, the feel is somewhat Japanese, but I can't come up with any direct parallels. Literarily, all I can think of is Milorad Pavic's "Dictionary of the Khazars", in that one is frequently left wondering if a particular story detail is an ingenious invention of the writer or a well-trodden cliche from a culture one knows nothing about.
Probably helps to have at least some fascination for the Arctic, not for those looking for relaxing cookie-cutter eye-candy, but a great movie for everyone else.
|
| great movie! |
|
| written by eryn74 |
July 20, 2003 - 9:37 AM PDT |
|
1 out of 9 members found this review helpful
|
Simply a great movie!
|
| Inuit meets Shakespeare: An amazing film |
|
| written by underdog |
February 28, 2003 - 10:36 PM PST |
|
14 out of 14 members found this review helpful
|
Certainly the first feature film made in the Inuktitut language and starring an all-Inuit cast, This is a singular cinematic experience. At nearly three hours in length, the film is occasionally languorous enough to lull one into an almost meditative state. But it's also packed with action -- romance, sex, murder, and one of the most unforgettable chase sequences I've seen on film, right up there with classic urban pursuits in Bullitt and The French Connection. Except instead of cars, this chase featured a naked Inuit man sprinting across a seemingly limitless expanse of ice, hunted by three men with spears. More than just an important footnote in film history it's an exciting film with a narrative sweep to rival many Hollywood epics.
At its core the story is simple enough, not dissimilar to plots of soap operas and Hollywood melodramas. The love triangle leading to seduction, betrayal and eventually bloodshed brought Shakespeare to mind on more than one occasion, until I remembered that this story was adapted from an ancient folk tale spun long before Shakespeare first put his quill to parchment. Watching the film transported me in the way that the Belic brothers' transcendental documentary Genghis Blues did, and not just because of the throat singing that occasionally pops up on Fast Runner 's soundtrack. Both films put you in a world you very likely would otherwise never journey to. A more obvious comparison would be to Robert Flaherty's historic documentary Nanook of the North, which is about the only other exposure I've had to this world other than an old National Geographic special. Nanook also featured unobtrusive but powerful cinematography, and had a rare feeling for a timeless world. The empathy both films show for these people, without being patronizing, is incredibly rare, both then and now. The sex scenes are pretty erotic (there's something about sex in a tent), but unlike such scenes in many modern movies, actually do advance the plot.
Although digital video was chosen over film mostly due to its lower maintenance in inclement weather (film has this annoying tendency to freeze and self-destruct in subzero temperature), it's a fortuitous choice. DV gives it an immediacy that makes it feel even more "real," as does the use of authentic seal oil lamps to provide the only interior lighting.
It takes about thirty minutes to fully enter this world, because everything in it is so new -- the language, the behavior, the environment. You're slowly drawn in, and then eventually enraptured. When the final credits rolled alongside behind the scenes footage, I found myself slightly shocked to recall that this was a scripted, fictional film. At first it is difficult trying to tell all of the characters apart -- most of the names sound the same to Western ears, everyone wears the same clothes, all of the men have the same long haircut. But this has the effect of training the audience to pay more attention to faces, to teeth (Oki has very distinctly fissured teeth, for example), bone structure, mannerisms. And after the slightly confusing prologue, their distinct personalities also shine through. Although sporadically giving the impression they are "reading" lines, the mostly amateur cast (the lead actor is more experienced) are naturals, giving the audience the eerie feeling of being amongst these people. You can almost feel your nose start to run when you look at the children bundled in seal skin blankets.
The filmmakers do an excellent job of very deliberately building tension in the story, leading to the aforementioned chase scene two-thirds into the film, which will make one's eyes widen in awe, when the wobbling horizon appears endless and you can almost see the curvature of the earth. One bit of advice: It helps, after viewing the ending, to then go back and re-watch the beginning, which then makes more sense. But the narrative takes hold soon enough, and the love story at its heart is, to sound like a commercial, universal. To paraphrase a line in the film, The Fast Runner is its own wolf, indeed. May it be passed on to generations.
|
|
|
Your cart
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.