The Return
So anyhow, I walk into Vancouver Airport, and some official comes up to me. “Are you Tom Charman?” Why yes, yes I am. She presses a slightly mushed apple danish into my hands. “This is your danish that you didn’t get on your flight to Calgary in December. Is Andrew Cocker here? We have one for him too. After the turbulence that prevented us serving them, we were handing them out when you ‘deplaned’.”
“You must have missed us.”
Now I have to decide how to send it to Andy.
In other news, Melbourne is very nice. The Demons are doing well at least. And I’d forgotten that Doctor Who is on all the time, as well as Alias and Angel. And That 70’s Show. And ER, which is up to just about the point it was up to when I arrived in Canada. Pah.
All the people are well too, but obviously TV is more important.
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Tom
July 6th, 2004 at 5:31 am
Do you think it’s only years of indoctrination that make us expect resolution in films? Surely the linear, causal existence we experience has something to do with it also? I won’t dispute of course that most movie fare these days is formulaic!
My question to the reviewer is, did you find the film boring? I only ask because of the comparison to ‘Waiting for Godot’. Can a film where almost nothing happens be truly engaging, or only appreciated on an artistic level?
Andrew
July 6th, 2004 at 6:56 am
I found Godot quite enjoyable/engaging but I can see how it could not have been. Either way, what I really liked about this movie is it did connect. There was a real nervous tension all the way, similar to a thriller. But because there was no development from scene to scene there was no relief. Almost as if a single moment was stretched out to a whole film. Definitely engaging, but in a very different way to most movies.
I would say there is a difference between resolution and linearity. In fact they are almost contradictory – a line doesn’t have an end.
Tom
July 6th, 2004 at 7:49 am
With regards to linearity and causality, I was just trying to summarise the aspect of life where we generally do get resolutions to most things. Mostly. Sometimes.
Godot for me was a similar experience to looking at a painting, which I find ok for something I can look at, then stop, then consider again, but I don’t enjoy it as much if I have to sit still for 110 mins. But then I never saw it properly performed – if this one connects then that’s probably the key, isn’t it?
Andrew
July 6th, 2004 at 5:48 pm
But generally not all aspects of life will reach resolution simultaneously. And rarely would it be an absolute ‘and they lived happily ever after’ type resolution. However I accept your basic point that to some extent the desire for resolution/closure is an inherent human quality.
I think the Godot/painting comparison is a good one, especially alongside my Return/music one. Godot entertains largely cerebrally, while the Return connects emotionally yet in an abstract way without clear explanation as to the origin/cause of the emotion.
Andy
July 7th, 2004 at 1:02 pm
One of those films eh? Would you rather it had a more complete conclusion? I find that after watching a movie like that for an hour and a half I need some kind of ending to relieve the tension.
I have the same opinion on Godot as Tom. Having been introduced to it as a written play rather than a performance, it seems very dull. I recent saw ‘Jumpers’ performed and I felt a huge difference in my appreciation for the play (although it was easier to follow having studied it in detail).
Andrew
July 7th, 2004 at 6:04 pm
By the end of the film you are pretty aware that it is ‘one of those films’ so you aren’t expecting much closure. It is not as if you have been tricked into expecting something which doesn’t materialise. Having said that towards the end of the movie, there is a dramatic event which you could take as a tension reliever if you wanted to but it isn’t portrayed that way by the director.
When I first came out of the movie I was a bit frustrated because I was trying to work out what it was all meant to mean. But if it does have a meaning there are so few clues it is impossible to work out what it is. So I consciously made myself stop trying to solve it. Also, the film is continuely tense for its entire running, without a single moment of relief so it is fairly appropriate that you still feel that tension as you are leaving the cinema.
I should probably point out that the similarities between the Return and Godot are mainly in the bareness of the stories and the ambiguity in the meaning. The Return is far less intellectual/arty. If you put in a whole lot of explanatory scenes in to the Return you could make a fairly standard thriller/road movie. You couldn’t do that with Godot because of the absurdity which is central to it.