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Embrace of the Serpent

  • 11-06-2016 6:25pm
    #1
    johnny_ultimate
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 30,019 CMod ✭✭✭✭


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS73P3hZvPA


    Think this stunning new film from Colombian director Ciro Guerra deserves its own thread.

    Definite shades of Herzog's jungle films and Apocalypse Now here, but no doubt Embrace of the Serpent is its own beautiful entity too. It uses a superbly implemented dual timeline approach, even managing to transition between the two in single, smooth camera movements at timed. Fictitious versions of two life-explorer's journeys through the rainforest, an indigenous shaman Karamakate who accompanies both men is the primary linking factor. But the stories also reverberate with each other in very strong and engaging ways.

    Most striking thing is of course that gorgeous black & white photography - which manages to articulate both the earthiness of the jungle and the more spiritual, ethereal layer of the film too. The film is very clearly an examination of colonialism and its costs - cultures, secrets and identities lost. This theme is sometimes explicitly stated - especially through the appearance of an almost Kurtz-like "messiah" - but the second-half of the film in particular probes the deeper, almost unspeakable impacts in a very visually powerful way. It's also a tribute to the Amazon itself, with even the title itself a sort of celebration of the river.

    A great bit of cinematic counter-programming for the early Summer all-in-all :)


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