It's the end of the world... and I feel fine

[yaoobruni]

A friend gives you a book, and when you make time to open it up and read it, it's fascinating. It's an engrossing tale, fast-paced at first, then increasingly epic and contemplative, eventually forcing you to wrestle with questions about what language can and can't do, what power stories do and don't have

Comments

[kassrachel]

I love your book-with-missing-pages analogy. It's just like that. Yeah.

I feel curiously fulfilled, too. And I want to see it again. I'm definitely still processing.

Like a part of my vision, missing for years, has returned...

:-)

[cybersattva]

Both your posts on this movie have me seriously intrigued. Since I'm unlikely to want to spend 4 hours in front of the TV next time (or any time) I'm up in your neck of the woods, do you have any suggestions as to where I might track down a copy? It sounds like getting a copy of the director's cut that will work in the US is a bit challenging.

[yaoobruni]

http://www.scarecrow.com/sales/item.asp?ProductID=002566

But you'll need either a region-free DVD player, or the ability to convert from region 2 to something that plays in our region.

[magdalene1]

Oh man, I really want to see it.

[tildequinn]

is it wrong to want a bittorrent?

[yaoobruni]

No, but it would be wrong of me to post one. :-) And it would probably be gigs of data...

[ellinor]

It's stories like this that make me realize why television is an art form that feature film can never be. Not that the television industry in its present form would be amenable to producing and airing this epic any more than the film industry at the time was willing to produce and distribute the film as Wenders imagined it, but from your experience it seems like it would be amenable to serialization - perhaps the viewer would suffer from having to watch it over several nights (as you describe), but the film might not, if divided skillfully. And it would reach an audience, which clearly didn't happen with the original - even the shortest version.

Hmm, I'll have to think on that some more. In any case, I'd love to watch this with you sometime.

:)

[yaoobruni]

There's some speculation that Wenders intended the film to be released as a TV serial, as it's impossible to imagine an eight-hour film being screened in a conventional theatre. But the cinematography is something that only works on a small screen now in the days of HDTV and LCD screens...

[dooneling]

What a lovely essay about a favorite film!

I remember enjoying that movie with you and kassrachel about 5 years ago (or longer?). And one of the things I really liked about it was the sort of jumpy, mysterious way the plot progressed. Now I'm pessimistically wondering if the longer version errs on the side of too much explication.

I don't suppose you'd consider screening both short and long versions, for comparison?

May 19th or 20th, since you're inviting suggestions.

[yaoobruni]

I think we'd certainly lend you the VHS version so you could compare and contrast...

And yes, I'm open to a screening on the 19th...

[dooneling]

ooh, good, let's do it!

[kassrachel]

I think the longer version is still pretty mysterious. We get more of certain things -- the storyline in Australia is much richer, and we get more insight into the main characters -- but the trilogy still doesn't spoonfeed one the narrative the way a lesser film might.