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CaB Film Club #4 - Nostos: The Return

Started by greenman, May 12, 2019, 04:14:23 PM

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greenman

This time its Franco Piavoli's take on the Odyssey from 1989....



For ease of viewing the complete films is on Youtube, no subtitles but little in the way of dialog anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn41hp4P_mo



Sin Agog

This film had about ten ratings on IMDB when I uploaded it and made it my personal quest to bring it back into the light. So...you could say that I'm more like its director than Franco Piavoli.  Please edit the opening post accordingly. Thank you.

;)

One warning: it's imperative that you only watch this when you're in a calm, unfiddly headspace. It's not over-long, and I wouldn't call it glacial, but let's just say if Nostos were an ocean it would be the Pacific, not the Atlantic.

I'll give it another whirl in a few days, though most of what I had to say was in the video description. Really looking forward to hearing some of your interpretations!

peanutbutter

I'm definitely gonna struggle with this one, really screams like something my attention span wont be able to deal with (until I'm in my next period of extended unemployment, at least).

Reckon it could benefit from some drugs? I might be able to take some drugs with it.

Howj Begg

I haven't been taking part so far, even though I've already seen Cemetery Man and Marienbad, but I def want to join in for this one, if that's okay? Are Johnny cum-latelys allowed? I need to see this film!

hedgehog90

I just did a quick scan on the youtube video and the first thing I saw was a lady with her boobs out.
It certainly looks intriguing.
I'll give it a whirl but I need to find a better source than youtube.

Sin Agog

Quote from: peanutbutter on May 13, 2019, 11:19:36 PM
Reckon it could benefit from some drugs? I might be able to take some drugs with it.

I could see someone enjoying it under the influence in a Blue Planet/Ambien Koyaanisqatsi kind of way.  It casts a very dream-like spell.

Quote from: Howj Begg on May 13, 2019, 11:21:56 PM
I haven't been taking part so far, even though I've already seen Cemetery Man and Marienbad, but I def want to join in for this one, if that's okay? Are Johnny cum-latelys allowed? I need to see this film!

I think almost half the CAB film clubbers have joined part-way through, so at the risk of speaking for greenman, you're more than welcome!

Howj Begg

Quote from: Sin Agog on May 15, 2019, 05:15:07 AM
I think almost half the CAB film clubbers have joined part-way through, so at the risk of speaking for greenman, you're more than welcome!

Great, thank you :) Nice to join you lot.

Quote from: hedgehog90 on May 14, 2019, 12:06:09 AM
I just did a quick scan on the youtube video and the first thing I saw was a lady with her boobs out.
It certainly looks intriguing.
I'll give it a whirl but I need to find a better source than youtube.


What's the easiest free file hoster everyone could use? I've got a 1.3gb copy

hedgehog90

I've got the 1.3gb copy too, howj. Took me over a day to download it with eMule :D
It's worth noting this film isn't missing subs as there are only 2:

1
00:00:09,652 --> 00:00:14,943
<b>NOSTOS</b>
THE RETURN

2
00:01:01,936 --> 00:01:09,242
Dialogue in the film is inspired by the
sounds of ancient Mediterranean languages.


I also threw up the interview featurette with the director on youtube if anyone's interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI4JBpgauXw
To enable subtitles you have to click the little icon in the lower left region of the YouTube player.

Howj Begg

Quote from: hedgehog90 on May 15, 2019, 10:18:53 PM
I've got the 1.3gb copy too, howj. Took me over a day to download it with eMule :Dr.

blimey! took me 3 mins, but then i do have a nitroflare account

sevendaughters

Really beautiful film. I saw it a little while ago. Proper comments to come in a few days, fancy a new watch.

greenman

#10
Finally had the combination of free time and the right frame of mind to get around to this.

I'd agree its very striking, not really a film of the most complex compositions or tracking shots and I think you could argue its the sound that actually takes the lead much of the time but that does work towards the intension well. I'd say a lot of cinematic attempts at Homer(most obviously Troy) flounder on treating it as historical documents with a bit of the supernatural added in where as this film treats it much more for what it actually was, a poetic mythical story. This film obviously pushes that to the extreme being very elemental feeling(again well served by simple compositions and score plus heavy focus on natural sounds) much more closely connected to primitive tribalism than classical Greece.

Youtube isn't really ideal for film viewing but in this case I would guess the film doesn't lose THAT much as its not really that dependant on extreme detail.

Sin Agog

Quote from: greenman on May 24, 2019, 01:23:52 PM

As Sin says I don't think Nostos is really very demanding, I mean its not a conventional film but its not Tarkovsky or something like that asking the viewer to consider more complex ideas and themes, its a pretty simple story told in an atmospheric fashion and indeed isn't that long at 80 mins.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Tarkovsky was a Piavoli fan and vice-versa.  I suspect the sequence in Nostos where he cuts to a more serene earlier idyll, with Odysseus Jr. having fun with his hula hoop, may be a reference to a similar scene in Ivan's Childhood with the apple cart.

Although I do appreciate it as a 'simple story, beautifully told,' not a million miles from other film-poetry like Vlacil's The White Dove and L'Atalante (in feel at least), I think there might be more going on than you're giving it credit for.  Czech out this really brilliant in-depth piece that likens Nostos to previous Cab Film Club entry Marienbad.  I particularly love the line: 'Nostos is a film almost as much about the water as the ship that sails in it.' http://filmstatic.blogspot.com/2017/11/nostos-il-ritorno-big-small-and-same.html

greenman

It feels a bit different to something like Marienbad or Stalker though in that I don't think it demands thought from the viewer, it operates mostly though atmosphere and any analysis would be more looking at how it functions in this fashion. The hero dealing with the scars of war, potentially rejecting his past but ultimately coming to terms with it and returning home.

Again to me it felt more genuinely mythic than most such cinema aiming for direct connection to the viewer on those lines rather than as some kind of historical document.

Sin Agog

#13
It is operating on less of a conscious level and more of a subconscious level, fo' sho'.  The aforementioned hula hoop scene is the only bit I don't particularly like for that very reason.  It's an obvious circle of life, ouroboros thing, and it comes across a bit jarring because of it.  I just got done sound-engineering this naff on the nose Brighton Fringe play about female genital mutilation where every political point was spelled out so clearly that no one could possibly miss a thing.  Give me the fathomless depths of the sea over that noise.  We don't gotta scrute everything.  Scruting's for the birds.

I always liked hearing people's 'this made me feel like' reactions to things.  Sometimes a colour rating is more informative than a star rating.

By the way, I'm re-reading the gorgeous Ancient Greek pastoral love story Daphnis & Chloe at the moment, and that would make an excellent cross-medium companion piece to Nostos.

Oh and a thousand salaams for watching, greenman!  Enjoyed hearing your thoughts.  Sorry my mind's too errant to hold a proper discussion on anything.