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The Winston-Salem Cinema Society
www.cinemasociety.org
Coming Attractions - Membership Information - Join Today - Contact Us
3 PM, July 21, 2002
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The Winston-Salem Cinema Society |
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Coming Attractions - Membership Information - Join Today - Contact Us |
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3 PM, July 21, 2002 |
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| KESTREL'S EYE (FALKENS ÖGA) Director: Mikael Kristersson (Sweden, 1998) 89 min.; Not Rated Anyone over a certain age probably saw Disney's amazing documentary THE LIVING DESERT (1953) in school, if not on television. The movie is notable for its close-up photography of animal life but suffered from a cuddly point of view and inane narration. Now comes KESTREL'S EYE, an equally amazing movie with a more grown-up approach. This is a Swedish documentary without a lick of dialogue or narration. It takes place atop of a church overlooking a graveyard. A family of kestrels (small falcons) lives in a nook on the roof. Director Mikael Kristersson shoots with secret cameras and microphones mounted atop and inside the church. As a result, the entire point of view of the film is from above. The kestrels (and the camera) watch as human workers carefully tend the graveyard below; we see joggers, and people attending weddings and funerals. We can hear them chatting but, as in Jacques Tati's films, the dialogue is only background noise. The only music we hear comes from the church itself. Most of the soundtrack is filled with kestrels cooing and clucking at each other. The effect is the kestrels seem to be watching us while we watch them in their most private moments. The birds follow their rituals as we do our funerals and weddings. As they look down on workers trying to keep the gravesites tidy, the kestrels almost seem amused by man's daily struggle with the chaos of nature. KESTREL'S EYE is a one-of-a-kind film and a lovely achievement. (Winner of the 1998 Marseilles Festival of Documentary Film "Planète Câble Award" in 1998, this film was not released in the US until 2000.) Source:(http://www.examiner.com/style/ default.jsp?story=art.kestrel.0105) Reviews and Links: Jeffrey M. Anderson, San Francisco Examiner http://www.examiner.com/style/default.jsp?story=art.kestrel.0105 Christabel Padmore, apolloguide.com http://apolloguide.com/mov_fullrev.asp?CID=2959&Specific=841 George O. Singleton, ReelMovieCritic.com http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/id106.htm Official site: |
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The Winston-Salem Cinema Society, Inc. | P.O. Box 15340 | Winston-Salem, NC | 27113-0340 | (336) 722-8269 A Non-Profit Organization
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