Is this the first film from Cylan to mark a notable shift in direction, or is it just a one off? Personally speaking, I hope its just a one off. Ill explain why...
In some aspects this film isn't anything unexpected. Cylan's visuals have always been very important and this latest digital outing is a further progression in the direction his previous works were already going. This films visuals seem even more extremely colour corrected and lusher than all the previous colour films he made. Cylan's sound-scape specifically seems to have also progressed hugely from his last films. These are all details im OK with (although I think his colour correction is a bit too much sometimes).
A few more words on the sound; On the whole it was great and the soundtrack was incredibly loud on the screening we saw, which im sure was deliberate. My only gripes were Cylan's constant use of a shaking metal sound effect that he's taken directly out of Stalker (i hope the estate of Andrei Tarkovsky aren't reading this!) were a little too much for me knowing the penchant he already has for his love of Tarkovsky! Oh, and the sound effect of the repeated thunderstorm really was way too unsubtle and unoriginal.
3 Monkeys however has a very different plot to his other films. In short, this is no normal meditative slow paced Cylan film and not what viewers who know his existing work will expect. You could also say that this film HAS an active plot, while the others have much less of one.
In a nutshell this film follows a simple "dramatic" plot which is setup for the viewer within the first minute of the film and is more akin to something one would find in a psychological thriller film. I wont ruin anything, but the very fact that this film uses "sensationalist" (very much so in terms of what to expect from Cylan at least) plot devices such as murder and attempted suicide give an idea of what I mean.
It did seem to run a little long and here lies a conflict I found with the film. I found it struggling to find its place between a short sharp slick psychological thriller and a normal Cylan film. In other words, wresting with its length and timing. Maybe its just me, this viewer that was doing the wrestling... Still, it seemed to be a bit too long and self indulgent for the kind of film such a plot arbitrarily assigns it. If it had been a more meditative Cylan film, sure no problem, the shots could have been twice as long and it would have fitted quite well within the inwards looking reflective nature of the narrative.
In conclusion, although I found the film very slick and well made, that ultimately it seemed lost between two forms/directions. Also, being very aware of Tarkovskys films and Cylans liking for them, i found the quite frequent specific references / takes from them to be quite annoying. A small point and irrelevant to anyone unfamiliar with his work.
I hope Mr Cylan's film don't continue to go in a basic plot driven direction such as this one or I believe it will be a great loss to world cinema.
In some aspects this film isn't anything unexpected. Cylan's visuals have always been very important and this latest digital outing is a further progression in the direction his previous works were already going. This films visuals seem even more extremely colour corrected and lusher than all the previous colour films he made. Cylan's sound-scape specifically seems to have also progressed hugely from his last films. These are all details im OK with (although I think his colour correction is a bit too much sometimes).
A few more words on the sound; On the whole it was great and the soundtrack was incredibly loud on the screening we saw, which im sure was deliberate. My only gripes were Cylan's constant use of a shaking metal sound effect that he's taken directly out of Stalker (i hope the estate of Andrei Tarkovsky aren't reading this!) were a little too much for me knowing the penchant he already has for his love of Tarkovsky! Oh, and the sound effect of the repeated thunderstorm really was way too unsubtle and unoriginal.
3 Monkeys however has a very different plot to his other films. In short, this is no normal meditative slow paced Cylan film and not what viewers who know his existing work will expect. You could also say that this film HAS an active plot, while the others have much less of one.
In a nutshell this film follows a simple "dramatic" plot which is setup for the viewer within the first minute of the film and is more akin to something one would find in a psychological thriller film. I wont ruin anything, but the very fact that this film uses "sensationalist" (very much so in terms of what to expect from Cylan at least) plot devices such as murder and attempted suicide give an idea of what I mean.
It did seem to run a little long and here lies a conflict I found with the film. I found it struggling to find its place between a short sharp slick psychological thriller and a normal Cylan film. In other words, wresting with its length and timing. Maybe its just me, this viewer that was doing the wrestling... Still, it seemed to be a bit too long and self indulgent for the kind of film such a plot arbitrarily assigns it. If it had been a more meditative Cylan film, sure no problem, the shots could have been twice as long and it would have fitted quite well within the inwards looking reflective nature of the narrative.
In conclusion, although I found the film very slick and well made, that ultimately it seemed lost between two forms/directions. Also, being very aware of Tarkovskys films and Cylans liking for them, i found the quite frequent specific references / takes from them to be quite annoying. A small point and irrelevant to anyone unfamiliar with his work.
I hope Mr Cylan's film don't continue to go in a basic plot driven direction such as this one or I believe it will be a great loss to world cinema.