For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - Le Quattro Volte
The Impression:
In the press notes there is a lot of talk about how this
documentary explores the stages of life and death. In my
opinion, when a film, especially a documentary, is given
this sort of discussion, it usually means we’re about to
have another Baraka on our hands.
The Reality:
I struggled mightily with this film. Le Quattro Volte
is a ponderous hour and a half that follows three distinct,
but connected storylines. The first being an aged
goat-herder who drinks water mixed with church floor dirt to
help cure his illness, the second being a baby goat who
becomes lost in the woods, and the third being a tree that
gets cut down and turned in to black firewood. Not to say
that a slowly paced film is a downer for me all the time,
but Le Quattro Volte sluggishly inches along at a
speed that had me fighting to stay awake. It is a well shot
piece of film, but watching goats play king of the hill for
twenty minutes is sure fire way to rocket me to Sleepytown.
Thirty minutes of wood cutting, wood organizing and wood
burning isn’t much help either. I can understand trying to
show the languorous pace of the Italian countryside, but I
could feel the minutes of my life ticking away as the old
man drank his seventh glass of church dirt-water. Perhaps
this is the point of the ordeal to see how the very minute
moments of our life, add together to become our entire
existence. I could’ve lived with a condensed telling.
The Lesson:
I might have ADD. Or maybe I need my slow films with less
goats.
- Noah Sanders
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