…words.words.words

Several weeks ago, a girl asked about my online name “cassiel,” and supposed I must be fond of the character in Wim Winders films. I did. However, I can’t remember the reason until I watched Winders’ 1982 film “The State of Things” last night. Precisely, it wasn’t bacause of the character, but the way Winders portrayed the essence of Time with beautiful plotless shots. He can tell stories without telling the stories. He’s a master who captures time with moving pictures.

“The State of Things” has a very strange beginning. It looks like a sci-fi story about several survivors finding a way out after a nuclear aftermath. A strange kind of sci-fi, more like a parable story set in a sci-fi scene. The survivors just keep walking, with masks and cloth cover everyone’s whole face and body. A dispute seems going up when a man put a dying girl to death, but soon deflates very quickly. They must keep going. Everyone seems calm, but we can sense the fear under the cover, given the ungoing desert view.

Just after we find out the survivor scene is a movie inside the movie, the crew run out of film and the producer is missing. Then, the crew start hanging around all day, not knowing if the shooting will be continued or not. Nothing happen, but time and life keep going. All we can see are some fragements of life of the crew people. Taking bath, hanging laundry, drinking, talking on telephones, and so on. Life is a story itself, and most of the time, it’s a montage of trivil things. They are small, but big to the person who’s experiencing it. Every moment is part of a story.

The final part of the film shows the director flying to LA looking for the missing producer. The producer have trouble finding money because investors in Holleywood don’t want black and white movies, or movies without plots. Until now, plot moves on… The discussions on Holleywood and European movie styles trigger me to remember things I used to feel. Seeing too many “exciting” images everyday, I’m afraid i’ve lose the ability to appreciate other kinds of images anymore.