It's been a week since I watched Tideland, though "watched" is hardly the best word for such a brain-curdling experience. It's still on my mind, so it passes my first test of A Great Film.
But what's it all about? "The resilience of a child"? Or is it the resilience of the child within - if you want to call it that - *my* child within. The film was testing me, and I have to admit, at first, I failed. The images resonate so strongly; working with heroin addicts has amplified things; watching a nine year old girl cooking up a hit for her father disturbs me, maybe because I know how real it is, all over the world. It also looks like she's had years of experience.
I'm an adult; and from the first scene, I fear for the child; a feeling that only intensifies as the story progresses. I actually looked at time, twice; I just wanted to get to the end right away to make it stop. I literally couldn't handle it.
It was the scariest film I've seen in a long long while; scarier than all the masterful Japanese horrors I can think of, scarier than Hitchcock. My heart spent the whole film in my mouth; which is why, by the end, I could taste the thing first hand, becoming childlike; and in those truly triumphant moments, where I am falling, like Alice, deeper into Jeliza Rose's fantasy; like when I realise she no longer mouths the doll's words; they have become independent beings (a triumph also of acting; we will be seeing much more of the amazing Jodelle Ferland, for sure), or right at the end, where she tells Dickens "I love you", and BANG! I am falling and don't even notice where I slipped, or how; over and over again, tumbling into the void. Scary, for an adult.
But everything about the film is so beautiful, and as I am transported further and further into Jeliza Rose's fantasy world, like swimming into a beautiful painting, a joyous counterpart to my fear evolves, and I find myself at once incredibly disturbed, and supremely hopeful; as if the magic spilling out of this girl; beyond all my Earthly Adult conceptions of fear and pain and misery; will somehow find a way, even if I can't.
It's rare a film comes along that can't be faulted, film without flaws, but here it is, called "Tideland", by Terry Gilliam. Screenplay, cinematography, acting, directing; for the duration of the movie I was aware of none of them; disbelief completely and utterly suspended. This makes it easy to fall under its spell, so be warned; this film could trouble you.
Looking back this last week, the story just gets better and better in my mind, the fantasy and reality melding into a most coherent telling of the inner life of a child, and how she might deal with the most hellish scenarios that life can throw at a person. A sort of fantastical transmutation born of innocence, the "place where dreams are made". I think I want to read the book.
And of the film, I look back and I think, "Did she really pull that off?", and I'm talking about Jodelle Ferland, who is *yougottafeggincheckthisout* amazing at every turn, playing not one but five characters - those Barbie doll heads are quite separate beings, for starters. She pulls it off, and then some, drawing us into her dream world with the kind of magic only a young girl can get away with. If you are an actor, even a gifted actor, watch this at your peril; if you suffer from jealousy, this is gonna hurt!
That's not to say that the other players (only four, really) weren't spectacular; they were; and I could fill paragraphs praising their inspired, exceptional performances; Dickens, Dell, Noah, even the ghastly Queen Gunhilda; it's just that Jezlia Rose *is* the film, and everyone and everything else is rightly secondary to her. And anyway, it's probably best not to intellectualize acting too much, I think. If you are an actor, they could all make you jealous!
If you are a director, too; Gilliam does his best work here, visiting all his favourite places with a deftness that can only come from big experience, not just in making films, but in life. The Gods helped, no doubt. Dare I call it A Masterpiece? Better not; we don't want the daring Gilliam resting on his laurels! But it IS a masterpiece, and one that probably only Gilliam could better, if that's even possible. It's up there, with all the Great Films I've been fortunate enough to have witnessed. Yes, "witnessed", that's a better word. I was really there, and you will be too. The sea is real, the submarine too. I know; I was there.
Tideland is an astonishing piece of work, and one I fully intend to enjoy on DVD, as soon as possible. At least, next time I won't be so scared, I'm sure, I'll just take a Big Deep Breath before we begin, sit back for the ride and enjoy the magical beauty of it, falling, without snatching at the sides, desperately trying to break my fall, grabbing at those familiar handles, spilling drawers of "things" all over the piece. I'll just let go and fall freely, see where I land.
At least, as soon as I can shake the first "witnessing" from my head, not any time soon, then.
-fm
But what's it all about? "The resilience of a child"? Or is it the resilience of the child within - if you want to call it that - *my* child within. The film was testing me, and I have to admit, at first, I failed. The images resonate so strongly; working with heroin addicts has amplified things; watching a nine year old girl cooking up a hit for her father disturbs me, maybe because I know how real it is, all over the world. It also looks like she's had years of experience.
I'm an adult; and from the first scene, I fear for the child; a feeling that only intensifies as the story progresses. I actually looked at time, twice; I just wanted to get to the end right away to make it stop. I literally couldn't handle it.
It was the scariest film I've seen in a long long while; scarier than all the masterful Japanese horrors I can think of, scarier than Hitchcock. My heart spent the whole film in my mouth; which is why, by the end, I could taste the thing first hand, becoming childlike; and in those truly triumphant moments, where I am falling, like Alice, deeper into Jeliza Rose's fantasy; like when I realise she no longer mouths the doll's words; they have become independent beings (a triumph also of acting; we will be seeing much more of the amazing Jodelle Ferland, for sure), or right at the end, where she tells Dickens "I love you", and BANG! I am falling and don't even notice where I slipped, or how; over and over again, tumbling into the void. Scary, for an adult.
But everything about the film is so beautiful, and as I am transported further and further into Jeliza Rose's fantasy world, like swimming into a beautiful painting, a joyous counterpart to my fear evolves, and I find myself at once incredibly disturbed, and supremely hopeful; as if the magic spilling out of this girl; beyond all my Earthly Adult conceptions of fear and pain and misery; will somehow find a way, even if I can't.
It's rare a film comes along that can't be faulted, film without flaws, but here it is, called "Tideland", by Terry Gilliam. Screenplay, cinematography, acting, directing; for the duration of the movie I was aware of none of them; disbelief completely and utterly suspended. This makes it easy to fall under its spell, so be warned; this film could trouble you.
Looking back this last week, the story just gets better and better in my mind, the fantasy and reality melding into a most coherent telling of the inner life of a child, and how she might deal with the most hellish scenarios that life can throw at a person. A sort of fantastical transmutation born of innocence, the "place where dreams are made". I think I want to read the book.
And of the film, I look back and I think, "Did she really pull that off?", and I'm talking about Jodelle Ferland, who is *yougottafeggincheckthisout* amazing at every turn, playing not one but five characters - those Barbie doll heads are quite separate beings, for starters. She pulls it off, and then some, drawing us into her dream world with the kind of magic only a young girl can get away with. If you are an actor, even a gifted actor, watch this at your peril; if you suffer from jealousy, this is gonna hurt!
That's not to say that the other players (only four, really) weren't spectacular; they were; and I could fill paragraphs praising their inspired, exceptional performances; Dickens, Dell, Noah, even the ghastly Queen Gunhilda; it's just that Jezlia Rose *is* the film, and everyone and everything else is rightly secondary to her. And anyway, it's probably best not to intellectualize acting too much, I think. If you are an actor, they could all make you jealous!
If you are a director, too; Gilliam does his best work here, visiting all his favourite places with a deftness that can only come from big experience, not just in making films, but in life. The Gods helped, no doubt. Dare I call it A Masterpiece? Better not; we don't want the daring Gilliam resting on his laurels! But it IS a masterpiece, and one that probably only Gilliam could better, if that's even possible. It's up there, with all the Great Films I've been fortunate enough to have witnessed. Yes, "witnessed", that's a better word. I was really there, and you will be too. The sea is real, the submarine too. I know; I was there.
Tideland is an astonishing piece of work, and one I fully intend to enjoy on DVD, as soon as possible. At least, next time I won't be so scared, I'm sure, I'll just take a Big Deep Breath before we begin, sit back for the ride and enjoy the magical beauty of it, falling, without snatching at the sides, desperately trying to break my fall, grabbing at those familiar handles, spilling drawers of "things" all over the piece. I'll just let go and fall freely, see where I land.
At least, as soon as I can shake the first "witnessing" from my head, not any time soon, then.
-fm