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News & ArtsThursday, March 26, 2009
Film This Week in the Film Section: Silent Light
Posted by Lindy West on Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 9:19 AM
One of the best films Charles Mudede has ever seen:
The setting for the movie is a place that is somewhere "under the Milky Way." However, the place or planet under the glittering stellar disk does not look or feel like our home, Earth, but another world altogether. The main reason for this otherworldliness is that the people at the center of the drama are members of a German-speaking Mennonite community in northern Mexico. Their German language enstranges the geography, Mexico, and vice versa. A Central European language is naturally associated with long winters, black forests, thick and bleak clouds—and not with a sunny world of rolling hills and semitropical vegetation.
Read the whole thing here.
And in case you were wondering:
Estrangement, Mr. Muede [sic]. Enstraging [sic] is something you just made up.
Mudede answers:
Enstranged, not estranged. Enstranged is a neologism that approximates the Russian word "ostranenie," which means "making it strange," or to defamiliarize something that has been smothered by habit. The Russian Formalists, and Victor Shklovsky specifically, argued that enstrangement is what distinguished poetic language from everyday language.
And per your request, movie times here. Enjoy.
2
"Silent Light" is far, far better than Reygadas' "Japon", but nowhere near as good as his "Battle In Heaven". All are very much worth seeing, though.
3
See how easy it is when you explain things instead of making up words?
props to all on this valiant effort to make this post happen!
if this saves the life of one unborn neologism from the greasy paws of Mr. M, it is more than worth it.
props to all on this valiant effort to make this post happen!
if this saves the life of one unborn neologism from the greasy paws of Mr. M, it is more than worth it.
4
Interface annoyance of the day:
To find out where this is playing, I had to:
1) Click over to the full review since the location is mentioned no where in this post.
2) Once at the review, click on "Showtimes" since the location is mentioned no where on the review page (unless I'm missing it, which i might be).
More info the film and showtimes at:
http://www.nwfilmforum.org/live/page/cal…
To find out where this is playing, I had to:
1) Click over to the full review since the location is mentioned no where in this post.
2) Once at the review, click on "Showtimes" since the location is mentioned no where on the review page (unless I'm missing it, which i might be).
More info the film and showtimes at:
http://www.nwfilmforum.org/live/page/cal…
5
Most of the time Mudede is just weird (haha, my spellchecker just suggested "muddle" and "muddiness" - just sayin'), but I kind of like "enstrangement."
6
Mudede needs to turn on the fucking lasers, about now. And it's hard to do that when you make up too many words, fun as it is.
8
languages have no such relation to topology.
protolanguages for germanic italic celtic greek etc. all became distinct and originated BEFORE the various indoaryan folk moved from the steppe lands near the black sea (all pretty much the same climate and terrain) to divers other places with divers climates and terrain such as sunny iberia, rainy ireland, sunny greece, sunny italy, dark-wintered sweden, gloomy forested germania, etc.
Like @ 1 sez in shorter words. Here it is in longer words: The core is always nice, it's usually "hey these are nice looking boobs" or "hey this is an interesting film/building/videa" whatev. But the dressing of faux intellectualization is often wrong, usually right only by accident, and overall, v. shallow.
protolanguages for germanic italic celtic greek etc. all became distinct and originated BEFORE the various indoaryan folk moved from the steppe lands near the black sea (all pretty much the same climate and terrain) to divers other places with divers climates and terrain such as sunny iberia, rainy ireland, sunny greece, sunny italy, dark-wintered sweden, gloomy forested germania, etc.
Like @ 1 sez in shorter words. Here it is in longer words: The core is always nice, it's usually "hey these are nice looking boobs" or "hey this is an interesting film/building/videa" whatev. But the dressing of faux intellectualization is often wrong, usually right only by accident, and overall, v. shallow.
9
@7
I'd attribute the sexism in "Battle In Heaven" to cultural mores more than anything else, but I'll grant that the movie is completely full of shit (as is "Silent Light"). They both are, however, stunningly precise and brilliant formalist exercises.
I'd attribute the sexism in "Battle In Heaven" to cultural mores more than anything else, but I'll grant that the movie is completely full of shit (as is "Silent Light"). They both are, however, stunningly precise and brilliant formalist exercises.
11
Neologism (actual definition from Merria…:
1 : a new word, usage, or expression
2 : a meaningless word coined by a psychotic
1 : a new word, usage, or expression
2 : a meaningless word coined by a psychotic
12
Two sics! I suppose I deserved that. (Next time, I really should actually proofread instead blowing past the preview screen). My apologies for mispelling your name, Mr. Mudede. I'm down with 'enstranging' but please don't ever use 'gift' as a verb, that's a neologism that I can't get behind.
14
@13
The reason is simply to keep the paper honest. Without Mudede The Stranger would be devoid of intellect.
The reason is simply to keep the paper honest. Without Mudede The Stranger would be devoid of intellect.
16
@15
If Charles made up words that would be true.
However much of the rest of the staff does, which is why Charles is so important.
If I was commenting on his Marxism, perhaps I'd accept your criticism. Since I'm not, I don't.
If Charles made up words that would be true.
However much of the rest of the staff does, which is why Charles is so important.
If I was commenting on his Marxism, perhaps I'd accept your criticism. Since I'm not, I don't.
17
The Mennonites make very good cheese. I ate a lot of it in Belize recently, where they have also settled and have a thriving and successful community.
19
Actually, Charles, the Wikipedia gives "defamiliarization" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamiliari…) as the English-language version of "остранение". No neologism needed.
20
Excellent review Mr. Mudede. Serious. Regardless of your use of *one word*. Also, I appreciate how, in the current 'Stranger Suggests' you supply the literal description of the events in the film, for those who can't appreciate the vastly more revealing review posted here that explores the content and potential meaning/value of the film. Funny/lame that.
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