Friday, September 13, 2013

1894 - Empire of Dirt


Got to see the World Premiere of this at TIFF, and since then I've heard such varying things about it.  It's the story of three generations of women trying to sort their lives out and figure out how to deal with one another.  I've heard people say that it's absolutely brilliant and others calling it an unfocused mess.  I'm somewhere in the middle.  I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.  I found the visuals to be distracting in that it felt like an artistic choice that was more interesting for the filmmakers than suiting of the story and world.  In the Q&A Stebbings mentioned that the film was an experiment in him not using a storyboard or shot-list, and it feels like that.  Also they mentioned not knowing where an expositional speech that everyone loved should go.  Right now, they've placed it at the very end of the film, and it almost feels like it's explaining, on-the-nose, all the subtleties we've been going through for the last two hours.  This was one of the larger complaints about the film I'd heard as well.
So I don't really recommend this film one way or the other.  If you're a fan of heavy dramas this could be right up your alley.

No comments: