Stellet licht (2007)

Director:

Carlos Reygadas

Writer:

Carlos Reygadas (writer)

Release Date:

12 October 2007 (Mexico)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A father's faith in God is put to the test when he falls for another woman. |

Plot Keywords:

God | Cult | Absurdism | Betrayal | Pantheism

Awards:

28 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Cornelio Wall	...	Johan
Maria Pankratz	...	Marianne
Miriam Toews	...	Esther
Peter Wall	...	Padre
Jacobo Klassen	...	Zacarias
Elizabeth Fehr	...	Madre
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jacques Brel	...	Himself (archive footage)

Also Known As:

Silent Light (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
Lumière silencieuse (France) (festival title)
Luz silenciosa (Mexico)
Stilles Licht (Germany)

Runtime:

145 min | France:142 min | Netherlands:135 min | Canada:127 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | USA:136 min

Country:

Mexico | France | Netherlands | Germany

Language:

Low German | Spanish | French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | UK:15 | Ireland:15A | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Chihuahua, Mexico

Company:

Mantarraya Producciones

Trivia:

Mexico's official submission for the 80th Academy Awards, and the first film from that country that is not in Spanish. Under AMPAS's new rules for Best Foreign-Language Film, it is eligible for a nomination.

Makes Brown Bunny look like a film

I always viewed Jet Li's The One as the single worst film in my lifetime, but I now have to reconsider. When the woman who introduced the film said it was in the vein of Tarkowsky I got interested. Not many films are made these days with that kind of poetic nature and visual invention. Then the film started. With a sunrise. The biggest cliché in cinema? Not when you stretch it for six minutes. It is then supposed to be poetic. Then we meet the dullest family in the history of cinema, accompanied by the steady rhythm of a clock. A cliché? Yes, but you see, this is different because it stretches the dullness and boredom to the extremely painful level, which made me relate to the man when he appeared to commit suicide. But in the end he just turned off the clock. This is symbolism, because like all modern festival art films, this movie is about regret, the need to turn time back, God and bladibla. The lead character is supposedly torn because he has found a woman who makes him feel the way he felt for his wife when he was younger, as if he was at one with nature. Cue eternal shots of fields, trees, the usual. When we meet him and his lover together, there is nothing to suggest even a remote sense of passion, as their dry tongues interlock for en eternity against poetic lens flare while the actors mechanically eat each other as if it was a meal their grandma had cooked and they just didn't have the heart to turn down. But only after he has explained the nature of their relationship in quasi-philosophical terms to his friend, who works as a mechanic, which means we have to watch them fix a car for about ten minutes in a traveling shot that reminds me of the first year of film school. For most of the rest of the movie the guy wanders around, looks at the sun, the snow and so on, and has the same discussion with a group of dispassionate confidantes. I won't spoil the blatantly obvious "story"-developments (they generally happen about an hour after they would in a Movie of the Week), but suffice to say it ends with a sunset that dares you not to scream at the screen. At least The One didn't think it was a Bergman movie. And I suddenly realized why cinema is seen as dying right now. For the most part we only have two alternatives. Mindless but well paced entertainment, and fortune-cookie philosophy 101 homework movies determined to show "exotic people" as if anyone who leads a different life than most of us are passionless, empty-eyed people "at one" with nature. As an alternative I'd recommend a long train ride, where you spend most of the time looking at the passing scenery and how the light hits it, while once in a while glancing at at the faces of people who wish it was over all ready. Don't bring a book. It will be too much like living.