Week 10 Film

To The Wonder - Terrence Malick

I really enjoyed being able to watch a narrative avant-garde film this week. Sometimes with the non-narrative films it's hard for me to even understand what to analyze. I found it helpful to have the narrative structure to bolster my viewing experience and allow me to relish the deviations from this narration.

However, at times I think I was so distracted by the beauty and feel of the filmmaking that I missed clear narrative plot points that other classmates picked up on.  For instance, I didn't read it as being chronologically sound because I enjoyed floating through it.

While I was watching, I admired Malick's ability to obscure much of what was going on, and for me to wholeheartedly accept that I was going to be a little confused for much of the film. Maybe I was a little more confused than I was supposed to be.

I loved the grand, sweeping quality of the film. It felt very spiritual the way Malick played with light and constantly revolving shots. After our class discussion I understand a little better that the film is about something higher, rather than being grounded in the characters themselves.

But I did enjoy Malick's shots that visually expressed the feelings of the characters. The distance between Neil and Marina (using their names brings them down to earth a little too easily) was conveyed beautifully in shots where we could see them on different levels of their house but they couldn't see each other, and walked off the screen unsatisfied.

It was interesting when Marina briefly held the power after coming clean to Neil and she was much larger in the foreground, dominating his small figure in the background.
I was also stunned by the dark, dollhouse feeling of Rachel McAdam's character wandering through her empty house after Neil leaves her.

Malick was notably very effective in conveying the paradise of love, by allowing us to watch the couple in their tender moments (in Paris especially) and feel like we were a part of the experience due to the unconventional way they were framed. Allowing us to see their arms embracing rather than their faces captured what we would be observing were we actually in their situation.