I went to see 'The Banishment' the other day. It’s by the Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev. I saw his earlier film 'The Return' and it impressed me enormously.
This new work has the same quite intensity and leisurely pacing. Music is almost non-existent, save for a very effective brooding string arrangement by Arvo Part. The story is in the tragic mould of Chekhov. Once again Zvyagintsev has cast Konstaintin Lavroneko in the lead. He portrays an enigmatic central character who seems to have dealings with something unsavory, but we never discover what it is. But the main story centers on the married relationship between Alex (Lavroneko) and Vera stunningly played by Maria Bonnevie...
Tension starts from the off when Maria tells Alex that she is pregnant, but that he is not the father. There follows a spiral into tragedy. The performances throughout are exceptional in there believability. The films visual quality makes many connections with that master of Russian cinema...
Andrei Tarkovsky; The use of rough irregular walls, water, dappled light, mirrors, picture frames, slow tracking shots topped off with ethnic music, all complimenting the majestically composed images photographed by Mikhail Krichman
Two other directors come to mind that I would, in my view, fall into the category of 'visual poets. Krzysztof Kieslowski whose 'Ten Commandments'...
was a stunning collection of highly inventive short films. Here in Britain Terrence Davies whose film ‘The Long Day Closes’... is a masterpiece of cinema - not a description I use lightly. And after an absence from our screens of almost ten years Davies is back with his highly acclaimed documentary, ‘Of Time and the City’...
in which he demonstrates his love of archive footage, sound design and an intuitive use of sensitive of music. All of these directors are unafraid to use silence, extremely long takes and tracking shots in order to savour a moment in cinema, an increasing rarity in this age of visual chaos.