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Review: |
Every now and then I bump into something
astoundingly refreshing and exceptionally thoughtful that
renders speechlessness within me. Yes simply enters the screen
visually and auditory, in a way, that sweeps the audience
off their feet into a brilliant cinematic experience. On occasion,
it feels a little like the free spirited filmmaking of the
French New Wave and Jean-Luc Godard’s innovative film such
as A Woman is a Woman (1961) and Masculin, Féminin (1966),
and Tout va Bien (1972). Yet, the director Sally Potter remains
true to her own vision, as her visual feast is like nothing
done before. It is a sensible juxtaposition of past revolutionary
cinema and succulently invigorating filmmaking of Potter that
enters a contemporary society with all of its issues and dilemmas.
***
Artistically, Potter presses present-day
issues through an exceedingly antagonistic venture where the
characters converge in daily drama and verse that in its length
matches Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Amidst
the poetic dialogues, the character’s personas take shape
through thoughts and actions while the words flow effortlessly
like running water over a smooth rock. Through clever cinematography
and symbolic framing of the characters in the chosen environment
Potter’s presents strong notion that the crisis does not emerge
through their conversations, but their actions, history, values,
morals, and beliefs. It is the moment when an action clashes
with another individual’s acquired cognitive disposition where
a conflict arises despite moments of harmonious unity. ***
The sound of a vacuum cleaner ignites
the story, as the gray floating screen eventually displays
microscopic dust mites and particles swerving in a chaotic
manner to aerial pull until it is turned off. Symbolically,
the opening suggests the notion of Newton’s Laws of motion
(inertia, dynamics, and reciprocal actions), which Potter
is about to apply to human beings in their way of interacting
in the story. The bigger question is who pushed the on and
off button on the vacuum cleaner, as it is never displayed
on the screen. This might reveal a philosophically spiritual
question, as it hints towards the idea of divine intervention.
Nonetheless, the audience will assume it is the cleaner (Shirley
Henderson) who delivers an analogously existential debate
through her cleaning, which she refers to as an illusion.
This is a mere three minutes into the film, but Potter has
successfully indicated her intentional direction with the
story. It will deal with people and their interactions while
their experiences and knowledge will help color their existence.
***
The main character, the scientist
She (Joan Allen) is married to the politician Anthony (Sam
Neill) that together offer a symbolic idea of who is in control
of the power. The relationship is strained to the ultimate
point; as Anthony has cheated on her while he squelches her
objections with complete emotional control. In retrospect,
there is more than this in the scene; She knows, but Anthony
controls. A thought of this should be considered in regards
to the nations and who govern the people. Yet, when She thinks
there is no hope, He (Simon Abkarian) appears like a subtle
breeze on a late summer eve with tender words she has not
heard in many years. ***
She and He enter a passionate love
affair, as she does not receive the love that a living organism
desires and he has no one to embrace in his lonely arms. Through
She and He, whose names might be a spiritual reference to
the beginning of mankind, the audience gets to explore the
collision of opposite issues – rich and poor, man and woman,
togetherness and loneliness, knowledge and ignorance, youth
and elderly, nurture and nature, love and hate, care and neglect,
servant and ruler, and death and life. It is within these
overlapping moments where Potter strings up an intriguing
love story across borders, as She is an Irish Catholic while
He is an Arabic Muslim that together face the social inertia
of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. ***
Yes presents a heavy viewing that
requires, maybe more than one screening, as it provides strong
social contrasting through the characters in the film. The
camerawork shows signs of perfection, as it does not intend
to be perfect in the way it points out the human imperfections.
The use of surveillance cameras and other visually technical
approaches enhances the cinematic moment together with the
stunning mise-en-scene. For example, the supper scene between
She and Anthony brings to mind the meeting between two adversaries
that cannot settle on peace. The color tones also accentuate
the mood of the scene whether it is passionate, or detached.
Potter has truly committed herself to cross borders into a
place where everyone will find something offensive. However,
it is her intention, as she desires the audience to experience
the same journey that He and She do, as they seek happiness
and unity. *** In the end, Potter shows the audience that
film is not simply a sequence of lines memorized by actors
set in a probable environment, but an artistic journey that
possess myriads of possibilities. It is within these possibilities
where the audience will uncover a true contemporary gem that
will leave the audience dumbfounded, as contemplation seizes
its grip over the viewer. *** ---
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