Away with Words

AWAY WITH WORDS is a fun and insightful film that is told in a fresh new way. It's got cinematographer Christopher Doyle's signature kinetic style, which we all loved in his films he made with Wong Kar Wai. But here as director he is free to go overboard with it, and it's pure fun to watch.

The narration and characters are great too. It's not a traditional story, which is a nice change of pace. It's still very well told. I'm not sure why all the one-star ratings here. The rest of the votes are pretty evenly distributed, but with a ton of single stars, which usually signifies some sort of campaign to lower the score of the film. That being said, the film ends up being much better than the star rating here would imply, which was a very nice surprise, although I suppose there's no accounting for taste. But I loved it. Highly recommend.

I saw this film at the Sydney Film Festival, and there were three things I loved about it:

• Christopher Doyle directing his own cinematography - what a visual treat (especially the bar scenes).

• It was a film about linguistics, which Doyle being (at least) bilingual would be bound to be interested in. Basically if the title interests you, you'll probably enjoy this aspect of the film.

• The blur between fiction and reality in the character of Kevin, playing himself I suspect, so real as the carefree scamp you love to have around/chronic alcoholic you want to get out of your life (depend on your point of view).

In the Q&A, I found the director unintelligible. Maybe he's a bit of a man's man because his gift to the audience in Sydney was Christa in an orange pantsuit, singing some breathy Monroesque tune. That was OK but he also did another Q&A for a different film later in the festival and Christa did her number again, although it had no relevance to the film. It was an annoyingly blatant free plug for Christa.

an amazing film by asian cinematographer guru chris doyle, almost permanent partner of wong-kar-wai. which means: amazing pictures. fuzzy around the edges, confused at times but shockingly clear at others (not just the pictures, i mean). which also means: people talking in different languages, at the same time, to each other. which in itself is worth watching if you fall for that kind of thing. another way to put it: creative, instinctive way of using words (and images etc) while on a certain level the whole thing makes SENSE. its just that doyle likes his beer often instead of cold which makes some scenes tiring.... but still. you critics out there, you´re much too "critical"..... away with words indeed.

A universe of psychedelic reality, in images of stunning beauty: it's like the director and his camera got drunk and filmed in trance; or maybe both director and camera were perfectly sober, just witnessing a mad planet and falling in love. Either way, it's pure cinematic poetry.

Asano: a Japanese who became a prisoner of his own memory. A gigantic memory containing words, thousands of words, in impossible associations with objects and smells and colors. Impossible to forget any word: they became his prison. He cannot accomplish anything: there is always a word obsessing him, impeding him to do anything else. One day he embarks on a ship for Hong Kong, hoping to find there solace. Once arrived, he stops at Diva Bar, where the owner is Kevin.

Kevin: an Australian (or maybe a New Zealander, you can never be sure), who keeps drinking good strong beer and cannot remember any word ever, even the address of the bar he owns (which is a gay bar, by the way). He cannot accomplish anything: there is always the lack of the necessary word, impeding him to do anything. Each night ends for him in jail (as the policemen find him drunk, wandering on the streets and incapable of telling them where he lives; and even if he'd know, he's not fluent in Cantonese). Susie comes in the morning to take him from confinement (Susie is the good angel in this absurd freaking world).

Then, what happens when Asano meets Kevin? Anybody can guess by now: you feel liberated by the stress of words, as well as by the stress of lacking the right words at the right time. It means, you can get away with words. Hence the title of this movie.

There is the world of words, and there is the world of objects, and colors, and smells: our reality. Can we consider words as reality? To paraphrase Magritte, can we smoke with the word pipe?

You can enjoy this movie, or you can get revolted to the point to say it sucks. It depends on your mood. I enjoyed it: I like to think that there are not only Euclidean worlds and Aristotelian guys.

Let's do NOT 'AWAY WITH WORDS' when texts are so full and enigmatic and fun that they can even solve the enigma of the chicken and the egg !

Or produce gems like some of the monologues of character Kevin:"Memories, that's what I forget; I remember happy things. If happy things are what I remember, will that mean that I am sad when I forget ?"

This debut film of DIRECTOR Christopher Doyle, who must be the hottest photographer of the past 15 or so years, is stunning, exciting and beautiful. And that is not only meant for the imagery, which IS indeed breathtaking.

What is this film... Hard to say, even though the post scriptum speaks of Dada and Automatic Writing, which is a hint in the right direction, I guess. The two male principal characters might very well be two sides of the same personality, or mind. And Susie, the leading lady, is Mother Nature, nurturing and trying to keep Yin & Yang together. Certainly, every theory is as good as the next one, but there might well be some truth in this:

Kevin, to Asano:"Susie says you could write a book from what I can't remember..."

This film is full of memories and mirages and, maybe, mirrors. So could this be a Tarkovsky with an hangover ? Hmmm, unlikely; and if so, would he have been drinking beer ? With Kevin ??! ...

Everything here is so varied, so divers, so haunting; the music, the imagery, the words, oh yes, the words too.

I have seen this film three times back to back and it doesn't let go for a moment. It keeps being surprising and spellbinding. Thank Goodness there are cineasts who know that a good film ought to linger on in the mind of the viewer. Some of the biggest filmmakers knew that; it's the reason why Kubrick's '2001' is a sensational classic and Spielberg's 'Close Encounters' merely a pretty good film. The first ends with a question, the latter with an answer.

Let's hope Christopher Doyle will be allowed to direct and write some more films !!!

'Not Forgotten. Just Misplaced'

PS: for those who are looking for this film on DVD: the very pleasant eBay seller 'fullhousedvd' has this title for sale from an Asian label. As he also has Doyle's cinematography work in the fabulous Thai movie 'Last Life In The Universe', as well as the documentary 'Buenos Aires Zero Degree; The Making Of Happy Together'. Well worth a visit...