The Look Of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)

[Henry Gale]

IMDb / Wiki / Letterboxd

[Henry Gale]

Just extraordinary.

I could talk about it endlessly, but considering I'm one of so few people to see it, I'll just put it in a way I think keeps similar to how I went in only knowing some thematic and elemental broadstrokes of it and one or two promotional images beforehand, and found myself was floored by not only what it dealt with, but that it did so in such a stellar 98-minute piece that like a dream, taps into inexplicable emotions purely with visuals, remains difficult to articulate or do justice with words, and feels way briefer and than it actually was, but so much fuller and more vivid than it makes sense to.

It has all the weight of The Act of Killing, only considerably different in its ambitions, with an approach that's even more invigorating, vivid and variable with its mood and style, as well as coming to a more easily therapeutic experience because of just how it beautifully and willingly the lives of Adi and his family have been allowed to be shared on-screen to deal with this same subject matter from such a different perspective to achieve a massive arena of empathy for us that as an audience the TAoK didn't allow us to escape to within it due to its own particular (though still masterful) design and intangible morals of its lead subjects. There are flourishes of genuine joy to balance the despair in this newer piece, and particular a coupling of brief lovely moments of humour where the oldest in the main family to the very youngest both find themselves making very similar jokes about age, time and their place in it that beautifully parallel each other.

I felt Act of Killing was simply one of the most unique and devastating films I might've ever seen before today, but after this companion, those feelings have not only deepened, but become considerably more nuanced and in some ways easier to process because Look of Silence provides an incredible widening of these ideas to include an amazing portrait of the humanity, hope and progress that exists alongside the memories of the genocide to combat the suppressed malice and surreal denial on display with Oppenheimer's probing of Anwar and the other perpetrators in the other, and its effects on their country to this day.

I'm not sure if it'll even be released this year, but I'll just call it my #1 of this year so far, because it really is that effortlessly laudible and wow does it ever need to be seen as soon as possible. The post-Q&A that this TIFF screening facilitated with Oppenheimer and Adi (the lead subject and guide through the film with his family and personal affiliation with the events dealt with in it) himself was a profound capper to the whole thing that I wish everyone who sees the film could have themselves to be able show their honourous gratitude to them and see just how much mutual pride they have for each other and just how moved they are by the validation of this long-gestating, dangerous, but now potentially eternally transformative piece in its own right to view as a piece of masterful filmmaking, but also for those involved in it and what it could potentially mean for their futures.

**** / 9.7

[Melville]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3521134/reference

[Melville]

A masterpiece. Another profound examination of cultural memory and horror. Perfectly complements the surreal perpetrators' view in The Act of Killing with the grounded, emotional victims' view of the same history. These two movies comprise maybe the best thing ever done in documentary film.

[Melville]

I see now there's already a thread for this in 2014. Can a mod merge them?

[dreamdead]

I see now there's already a thread for this in 2014. Can a mod merge them?

Done. Regrettable that this film never came to Tulsa, and so I'm stuck waiting for a DVD. Hopefully netflix also offers this one up for InstantView soon.

[Henry Gale]

Yeah, whatever year I count this as being a part of, it's #1.

It's been what, 16 months since I saw it(?).. I still think about it constantly.

[ledfloyd]

I need to get around to this one, and stat.