Wednesday - Day Three (Three Months Later)
The name BackBay is appropriate seeing how often I post. Maybe BarnacleBay would be better. I sometimes get stuck on things and I stop in my tracks. As I wrote of my reaction to La Moustache I mulled on the issue of how much of the film one should reveal. Anyone that loves film prefers cold viewings so that the experience is unmediated by others. Of course we all need gatekeepers; those whose opinions we respect to winnow down the choices and point out paths we might take.
The so called “plasticity of film”, the unique character of film to manipulate time and space is used masterfully in La Moustache. It is a wonderfully enigmatic film that requires viewer investment in the main character and participation in its narrative meaning. La Moustache seems a study of the internal/external psychological space of a man in crisis. What happens to him only becomes clear if you connect the very first images and sounds to the middle and end of the film. I found it fascinating and deserving of a second viewing.
