Carlos Reygadas, Mexico, France, The Netherlands, Germany, 2011
Comment
The director films a little girl running around in the middle of nature. She is filmed in wide shots that reveal the sumptuous landscape through which she runs: a rain-soaked field whose green sometimes fades into dark patches of mud, powerful and majestic mountains that rise towards a purple sky, heralding the coming night. In the distance, cows form a herd in a strange ballet that seems to echo the girl's run, sometimes nervous, sometimes calm and contemplative. She runs alone, and seems to be under no one's gaze, except that of the viewer. Carlos Reygadas also films the sensations experienced by the little girl: the camera, at the child's level is very mobile and seems to be waiting for or anticipating her movements. The shots alternate between very close-up shots that take us into her interior world and ways of perceiving that which surrounds her. This sensation is accentuated by a visual effect, the director uses a filter that blurs the outline of the image, and creates a supernatural halo, as if the character's attention was focused, in an extreme way, on certain details, the closest. One can hear very distinctly the mooing of cows and the panting of the dogs that circle around her. She seems to be running not to escape danger but for fun, her excitement and joy punctuated by the sound of her feet sinking into the puddles. Sometimes she stops, as if to listen to her own breath, and names everything she sees. Suddenly a herd of wild horses appears, as in a fairy tale, as if by the magic of her one enchanted word she had made them rise from the earth. The light gradually fades, the sounds of surrounding nature fill the space and rise to a crescendo, the shots stretch out and the rhythm of the editing slows down. Reduced to black silhouettes the little girl and animals merge into shared anxious expectation, before freezing as lightning tears across the sky. This long scene featuring the little girl opens the film and plunges the viewer into memories of discovery, recalling first encounters of childhood.
Comment
The director films a little girl running around in the middle of nature. She is filmed in wide shots that reveal the sumptuous landscape through which she runs: a rain-soaked field whose green sometimes fades into dark patches of mud, powerful and majestic mountains that rise towards a purple sky, heralding the coming night. In the distance, cows form a herd in a strange ballet that seems to echo the girl's run, sometimes nervous, sometimes calm and contemplative. She runs alone, and seems to be under no one's gaze, except that of the viewer. Carlos Reygadas also films the sensations experienced by the little girl: the camera, at the child's level is very mobile and seems to be waiting for or anticipating her movements. The shots alternate between very close-up shots that take us into her interior world and ways of perceiving that which surrounds her. This sensation is accentuated by a visual effect, the director uses a filter that blurs the outline of the image, and creates a supernatural halo, as if the character's attention was focused, in an extreme way, on certain details, the closest. One can hear very distinctly the mooing of cows and the panting of the dogs that circle around her. She seems to be running not to escape danger but for fun, her excitement and joy punctuated by the sound of her feet sinking into the puddles. Sometimes she stops, as if to listen to her own breath, and names everything she sees. Suddenly a herd of wild horses appears, as in a fairy tale, as if by the magic of her one enchanted word she had made them rise from the earth. The light gradually fades, the sounds of surrounding nature fill the space and rise to a crescendo, the shots stretch out and the rhythm of the editing slows down. Reduced to black silhouettes the little girl and animals merge into shared anxious expectation, before freezing as lightning tears across the sky. This long scene featuring the little girl opens the film and plunges the viewer into memories of discovery, recalling first encounters of childhood.