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Reviews
Song of Songs (2005)
Challenging but well worth it.
Far from being an 'easy' film, even difficult at times, I thought that Song of Songs was a pretty visionary piece for a first time director. Visually it's almost stunning; intellectually it's challenging. The images are very striking. The way in which the camera focuses on the backs of the characters' heads makes it very intimate in its emphasis. In fact I found it almost reminiscent of Bergman's Persona at some points. It is this intimacy, which the director explores through image rather than speech, which makes the film something a little special in comparison to other British films around at the moment.
I thought that this investment in the characters was pretty well balanced out by the more existential questions that the film throws up. These questions are to an extent left unanswered, but isn't part of the beauty of cinema that the audience is left still pondering those questions after the credits go up? It does deal with some tricky issues; to link sexuality and its repression to faith and orthodoxy is, in the present climate, an ambitious task. And even if the answers the film does give are shocking and difficult, I think the contradictions that the audience is left with are ultimately not due to any incoherence in the film itself, but reflect the difficulties of the issues the film confronts. An ambitious piece, but well worth seeing for this ambition alone. And if ambition doesn't tempt you, then it's worth seeing to see Nathalie Press - her performance demonstrates her chameleon abilities. Chalfen does a good job too. Finally, a new director who has made something a little different inside the British Film Industry! I hope it gets a general release beyond the ICA.