Wolfsbergen (Nanouk Leopold)
This week I went to see Wolfsbergen, written and directed by Nanouk Leopold. A beautiful film rich in structure and full of interwoven contrasts - using the ordinary to cover major themes of life.
I won't repeat the plot here as it has been told elsewhere. Also because this is a movie, and the story is just a small part of the whole experience. Wolfsbergen is markedly visual, using all available means of cinema to bring the concepts across.
I think Nanouk has done a magnificent job. The film is just extraordinary. Bias note: I know Nanouk from my former life as an artist. We even went to the same art class, but our work was very different then. And halfway the nineties I went into multimedia and she went to make films.
Somehow Nanouk's films strike me as familiar, quite strongly. As a part of me, really. Today I got confirmed.
In a video interview Nanouk tells us she uses space as a means to express the movie characters. The way I read this, the surrounding space is in fact an intrinsic part of their inner life. The way space folds around them, structures movement, restricts our view, captivates our moods. Space can tell us more than the expression on an actor's face.
This aspect of using space to express feelings has been part of my own visual language when I was making visual art. A language with a history - I am sure we both have a shared admiration for Yasujiro Ozu.
A particular example of how the film tells the story is the scene where Maria leaves the house. At the start of the scene the first thing you notice is the low humming sound of a car. Just by the sound of it you know that this is a taxi waiting outside. Maria is at the end of the hallway, at the open door, enclosed by the walls of the long hall. This is a long shot - she never comes close so we cannot read the expression on her face. Just before she closes the door she takes a look back inside in our direction and you realise she's not leaving for work, not with this gaze projected back into the house.
Further read: -
Interview: Nanouk Leopold on her multigenerational family drama 'Wolfsbergen'
- In-depth review of Tokyo Story by Roger Ebert
- Video: Nanouk Leopold over Wolfsbergen - short video with film fragments and a few actor quotes
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