victor-fraga
It's so visually stimulating that it transcends reality. Sokurov subverts cinema by concentrating on each individual frame, as if we were watching a 24 frames by second succession of impeccable paintings in a hypnotic pinachoteca. It's like being in an art gallery where the paintings – and not the viewers – move.The Russian director skilfully exposes the grey and vacuous existence of an ailing mother and her doting son against the backdrop of verdant Russian summer. Death is overwhelming and yet comforting. The grainy images are dainty and delicate, as in the ephemerality of life. The dialogue is minimal. Words are very unnecessary, they can only do harm. Mutter and Soh is beyond cinema: near-static images that speak for themselves, feeble lives that unravel into infinity, like grainy water-based paintings which quickly wear out.
tintin-23
The first impression one has upon viewing Sokurov's film is of formal aesthetic parallels with Tarkovsky's cinematography (long takes, his free use of natural sounds, and the unaffectedness of his actors). Both directors concern themselves with philosophical questions of the human existence and strive to express the inner reality of their beings. However, whereas Tarkovsky' main characters are spiritually oppressed, struggling to overcome and escape their fates, Sokurov's characters films are resigned to and accepting of their oppression. Tarkovsky's cinema is one of striving toward spiritual liberation, whereas Sukorov's cinema is one of enduring spiritual submission.In "Mother and Son," one is struck above all by the rather unusual cinematography, starting with the very first images following the credits. Many scenes have the flatness of a painting instead of the usual three-dimensionality of films. Indeed, "Mother and Son" is a "picture-film," where the images, the perspectives are routinely distorted and flattened to two dimensions. Sokurov's intentions are clear so far has he is striving to give his film the appearance of an icon or of a religious painting of the Quattro cento. I would also add that some of the indoor scenes, in particular the opening one, reminds one of the founder of the German expressionist school, Edvard Munch. The distortion of the characters' physiques and the claustrophobic atmosphere of the room reeking of death also contribute to this identification with Munch's most famous paintings and engravings.All through this production, Sokurov distorts his images in various ways, using panes of glass placed in front or to the side of the lens, mirrors, and even paint on the camera lens itself. Through these effects, the characters, objects, and nature appear "compressed" and distorted, which then serves as a metaphor for the turmoil of the soul. This turmoil is exacerbated further by the sense of a timelessness which permeates the film. Time seems suspended by the stillness of the characters. The long takes (there are fifty-eight shots in a film which runs for seventy-three minutes) also give a sense of stillness, which make us lose all sense of time."Mother and Son" is almost a silent film. The silence which prevails for most of the film is deepened by discrete, natural sounds emanating from beyond the screen, accentuating the sense of isolation from the rest of the world: running water, thunder, wind, bird calls, etc. In this respect, Nature is an important character, visually as well as aurally. The appearance of a steaming train or of a sailboat far in the distance only serves to remind us of the isolation of these two characters. These natural sounds are mixed together with some very subtle original music by Mikhail Ivanovich, together with a few musical segments from Mikhail Glinka and Otmar Nussio. The dialogue is spare, and these exchanges can hardly be considered conversation. The characters have gone beyond talking to express their thoughts and inner feelings to each other: they even have the same dreams. No philosophical discussions on the meaning of love or death ever arrive to reinforce what is evident through the imagery.Finally, one will notice that the two actors are non-professional: Alexei Ananishnov is "in real life" a mathematics professor, and it is the only film ever made by Gudrun Geyer, who had no previous acting experience. The characters in the film are present, but they are not acting. This is in keeping with Sokurov intentions to relate an experience and not a story."Mother and Son"'s themes are about one of the deepest relationships which can exist on the Earth, the love between a mother and her son, and the solitude of the death experience. The film explores the remaining moments between the son and his mother on her unavoidable journey toward death. Nothing else exists for these two characters, about whom we know nothing. Sokurov does not reveal anything about their past, nor about their future. The present moment on their road together toward the doors of death is the only subject of importance. They are as one being in a strange, lonely, but beautiful world. But this intimate relationship will soon be rent asunder by Death, and Sokurov shows us that in spite of their close love relationship, in the end death is still a personal, private, isolating experience for both of them. As the mother drifts in and out of consciousness, the son's attitude as he faces the inescapable end goes from somewhat cheery and reassuring in front of his conscious mother, to total anguish and desperation when he is alone in the woods.If the journey of these characters is a mystical experience, it is not a religious one. God is never mentioned nor alluded to. Sokurov denies a deity, but not some indeterminate afterlife.The film's ending is still ambiguous, as Sokurov leaves open the possibility that the mother is still alive when the son returns from his walk. In the scene just before the son leaves the house, his mother lies in her bed-coffin, a white butterfly rests on her fingers. In many cultures, from the Christian Irish to the Baluba from central Zaire, the soul of a person emerges from the cocoon (the grave) and flies away in the form of a butterfly. Sokurov leaves us guessing at the end of the film: on the mother's gray, emaciated hand, the butterfly is still there."Mother and Son" is an experience much more than it is a film. We are confronted with a continuum of painted scenes, as we would in any museum. We are drawn into each scene as we would be drawn into each painting, reflecting on content which raises in us a myriad of emotions -- some from long ago, forgotten -- or provokes new reflection. All of these emotions appear and disappear in dream-like fashion and in so doing, we partake in the mystery and complexity of the love between a mother and her son.
Miksa76
This film is about the relationship between a sick mother and her son. (surprise.) Surely, this isn't for the average viewer: narrative is slow, events nonexistent; the film consists mostly of painting-like "still-lives" with very little dialogue. The mother and son walk along the beautiful sceneries (the film is done on the island of Rügen, by the coast of Germany), approach each other, take contact by embracing and hugging.Nick Cave, the rock singer, said somewhere that this film is the most beautiful he has ever seen. I agree that it is maybe Sokurov's best: the twisted images of the landscapes, great camera work and almost meditative feeling are something I love to see in the cinema - if nothing else, just as an attempt this is a great film, instead of all the run-of-the-mill "narratives" we come across.Beautiful. Word.
