AUTUMN FILM Special AU
➙ explain itself, give up its secrets, or conform to any convenient explanation, and that’s what makes it so fascinating. Like Kris and Jeff, the audience are taken in, beguilingly befuddled, and then spat back out, left to ponder on what makes us who we are, and the fragile notions of self-actualisation and identity.
GAIL TOLLEY In 1960 Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura was i rst screened at Cannes Film Festival. The story of a woman who disappears while on a trip to an island with friends startled audiences for one simple reason: the mystery at the centre of the i lm was never resolved. It received some boos on its i rst screening but that didn’t stop it becoming one of the most discussed and critically-praised i lms of its time. Film lovers who watch L’Avventura today will still i nd something that is beautiful, unique and utterly memorable.
to decipher
it. However, Upstream Colour is a very different beast to L’Avventura, and in some ways with its deliberately obtuse plotting it asks for audiences to attempt like L’Avventura, it’s a i lm that can be enjoyed for far more than its story. Upstream Colour creates the strange, disorientating sensations of a dream (or perhaps more accurately, a nightmare), and this haunting atmosphere lingers long after the i lm has i nished. It’s also beautifully shot, with greys and blues mirroring the sterile, controlled world its character exists in.
What exactly Upstream Colour means is likely to remain a mystery for most of those who see it. Perhaps it is simply about a god-like character who is also a pig farmer (although even that explanation doesn’t quite explain the i lm’s ending). Perhaps too there is a clue in its frequent references to Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, a book published in 1854 about nature, spirituality and attempting to transcend our everyday existence. A lot of fun can be had in puzzling over Shane Carruth’s i lm but trying to explain every plot twist and turn might be missing the point. Part of the joy of Upstream Colour is wallowing in its strange science i ction world. Life is full of unexplained moments and strange events, Upstream Colour rel ects some of life’s mystery. My suggestion to those wondering how to make sense of it all: just sit back and enjoy the ride.
20 THE LIST 22 Aug–19 Sep 2013
TOP 5: NEW DOCS INREALLIFE Eclectic British filmmaker Beeban Kidron embarks on a quest to take the measure of the internet-raised generation. Prompted by seeing a young person check their smartphone at a funeral, Kidron questions what constantly being connected is doing to kids’ perspectives. From Fri 20 Sep.
PROJECT WILD THING A low-budget British offering with promise, here David Bond attempts to harness the power of mass-marketing to introduce stuck- indoors children to the wonders of the natural world (beginning with his own bored kids). From Fri 25 Oct. LOVE, MARILYN Liz Garbus (Bobby Fisher Against the World) enlists a raft of Hollywood actresses including Uma Thurman, Glenn Close and Marisa Tomei to read from recently discovered diaries of Marilyn Monroe. From Tue 15 Oct.
MUSCLE SHOALS This is the story of a village on the banks of the Tennessee River in Alabama that improbably birthed the defining sounds of rock, soul and funk. With contributions from Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones and Bono to name a few, this one’s got crowd-pleaser written all over it. From Fri 25 Oct. LEVIATHAN A detailed look at the inner workings of a fishing-trawler doesn’t sound thrilling, but with cameras shooting in every conceivable part of the process, Leviathan immerses the audience, creating a totally unique sensory experience. Winner of Edinburgh Film Festival’s Michael Powell Award. From Fri 29 Nov. (Paul Gallagher)
NIKI BOYLE
‘Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God? [ . . . ] You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you.’
This line of dialogue, from 1999’s Fight Club, predates Upstream Colour by a good 14 years, yet it holds the key to understanding Shane Carruth’s biological, metaphysical drama. Imagine God, not as some benign creator with humanity’s best interests at heart, but as a scientist with other passions, for whom mankind is but a minor piece of the puzzle. In Upstream Colour, God is represented by the Sampler (Andrew Sensenig), a pig farmer who spends his time collecting (and delighting in) ambient noise samples from the natural world. Mankind, for this God, is merely a carrier for something more valuable: he takes specially-infected samples of humanity, binds their DNA (and, as an accidental by-product, their souls) to those of his pigs (his real focus), and then discards them. The process is cyclical: when a genetically modii ed pig gives birth, God disposes of the piglets in the nearest river. Their bodies rot, and their modii ed DNA seeps into the stream, where it is absorbed by orchids growing on the riverbank. These special, blue-tinted orchids are collected by l orists, and sold to Upstream Colour’s Satan character: the Thief (Thiago Martins). The Thief uses the biological agent harvested from the orchids to drug, brainwash and condition his targets; when he has stripped them of their earthly possessions, they are left to i nd their way to the Sampler, who performs his genetic transfusion, completing the cycle.
What the Sampler, in his distance from humanity, fails to anticipate is the metaphysical link shared not just by his pigs and their humans, but also by the humans with each other. Kris and Jeff are both survivors of the process who i nd each other, forming an immediate connection. Alone, they would have suffered their fate; together, they’re strong enough to uncover the process and end it. This is Upstream Colour’s ultimate message: as a united whole, humanity no longer has a use for a God who doesn’t care.
Upstream Colour is on release from Fri 30 Aug. See review, page 55.