Birth

d: Jonathan Glazer w: Milo Addica, Jean-Claude Carrière and Jonathan Glazer

I'm probably not the first to say this, but I'm almost certain Jonathan Glazer was channelling Stanley Kubrick when he made this film. The long tracking shots, or the long intense closeup, both while a luscious classical score play... vintage Kubrick.
The themes touched on as well, reincarnation, eternal love, deception and, though never said outright it's explicitly implied, pedophelia. This meaty dramatic, emotionally suspenseful script is something Kubrick would have toiled away at for years, figuring it all out before putting it to screen.
I'm sure it's taken less time for Glazer to do it than Kubrick would, but perhaps the spirit of the old man is a little more proactive now. The colour pallette, the lighting, the camerawork... Glazer's previous film, the brilliant Sexy Beast, has little in relation with this, but he's quickly establishing himself as a different director... another in the clan of ex-music video guys leading the charge in new cinema (alongside Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and the like), cinema that explores possibilities as probabilities and not needing the convention of science fiction to do it.

Birth is an extremely gripping film with a slow pace that only serves to pull you in more. The score by Alexandre Desplat fills the quiet moments, overtaking all other sounds, and eventually it's all encompassing. A wonderful moment - the turning point as Nicole Kidman's character realizes that the 10 year old boy is indeed her husband reincarnated, and that yes, she is still in love with him - the camera freezes on Kidman's face, filling two thirds of the screen. She's at a performance and the music overwhelms all other sound, and you lose yourself in Kidman's expression, as the music synchronozes with her twisted emotions. Her eyes swell, and begin to tear, a redness in her nose and cheeks appears, a slight quiver. It's a moment best experienced on a big screen... powerful.

It's not a morality play. No one is being judged, it's a question, a "what if" dealing with the possibility of reincarnation and the true reality of love. Certainly not a film for everyone but a wonderful experience, which is invariably what cinema is for.

Posted by graig at November 3, 2004 03:59 PM
In Theatre