I liked it, too. I don't think I can say I loved it, but I did love watching it, if that makes any sense. For me, I think it was inspiring as an amateur filmmaker to see a 78-year-old master who could just rest on his laurels contorting his picture so gleefully into so many odd shapes, apparently just for the fun of it. It seemed so misshapen, but I never had any sense that it was incoherent. Resnais said the title refers to the characters ("Les Herbes folles" refers generally to grass that springs up in odd places like the cracks in pavements or stone) whose love is springing up in circumstances where it has no chance of developing. But I'm pretty sure it's an explanation for the entire film, which seems to be made up of scenes from lots of other possible films, springing up here in odd places where they really aren't meant to be and which have no chance of growing into anything more except the uniquely strange little patches of grass they already are. It's almost as if Resnais is suggesting that cinema itself is like wild grass that can't be contained, that there are always other possibilities in cinema that will eventually break through, no matter what kind of structure you've tried to build on top of it. I think it shares some of Raul Ruiz's sensibilities in that respect (and I'm referring more to his writing than his films, which I'm still not very familiar with).
I have to echo the sentiments about Mark Snow's score, too. From a purely musical standpoint I don't think I would be crazy about it, but it really is just the perfect score for this film. Snow is probably rather underrated as a film composer (I say probably because I don't actually know much of his work). But then Resnais has always had very good instincts about music. Eric Gautier's lighting is pretty great, too. Almost otherworldly...I can't think of anything else that looks quite like it, except for
Private Fears in Public Places. With the Resnais films,
Summer Hours and
Gabrielle he has quickly become one of my very favorite cinematographers today.
knives wrote:Finally in regards to the narration which I loved, am I wrong for thinking this is the rationalization of the farmer near the end for the strange behavior of the plane?
That was my impression, as well, though it strikes me as just another patch of "wild grass" in the film, another possible direction this or any other film might go, rather than something that's intended to affect one's reading of the rest of the film.
I have to confess I'm as clueless about the very final scene as anyone else, but honestly I think it would have been a little disappointing if this film had a sensible ending.
