Only Werner Herzog would be bold or crazy enough to take something as ugly as oil fires and make an opera out of it. In this fifty minute art film Herzog's voice (delicate and equally distinctive) recites about a pages worth of either poetry or pretentiousness over a montaged series of imagery which the more ugly industrial side of planet earth. For a while you feel like you are on another planet, as a helicopter takes you up and above acres of rusted metal in the middle of a desert. The collaboration of imagery in Herzog's mind translates to the aftermath of a 'great war' and that's how he approaches it, and present it to us. Much of the latter portion of the film concerns oil workers fighting flames the size of buildings, creating clouds smoke the size of tornadoes, epically capture by the camera.
Lessons in Darkness is bold and assertive, not a pretty picture, but engrossing nonetheless. The fact that it is only fifty minutes is no problem at all. What bothered me more was how the movie seem a little confused in function. Herzog attempt to milk his material for documentary/ mockumentary value feel unnecessary. He tries to do it using smallest possible gestures, but the finished project is a odd mix of poetic commentary, which doesn't end up saying much, and feels like a bit of a waste. The attempt was certainly not uninteresting though.
Scoring also plays a big part in the movie. A lot of it is borrowed from various aria, but still, the integration is effective. We are able to appreciate the music at the same ime as the imagery, without one upstaging the other. Lessons in Darkness, is a exceptional experiment. It does not quite become an exceptional movie, but I can easily recommend it to the art lovers
Lessons in Darkness is bold and assertive, not a pretty picture, but engrossing nonetheless. The fact that it is only fifty minutes is no problem at all. What bothered me more was how the movie seem a little confused in function. Herzog attempt to milk his material for documentary/ mockumentary value feel unnecessary. He tries to do it using smallest possible gestures, but the finished project is a odd mix of poetic commentary, which doesn't end up saying much, and feels like a bit of a waste. The attempt was certainly not uninteresting though.
Scoring also plays a big part in the movie. A lot of it is borrowed from various aria, but still, the integration is effective. We are able to appreciate the music at the same ime as the imagery, without one upstaging the other. Lessons in Darkness, is a exceptional experiment. It does not quite become an exceptional movie, but I can easily recommend it to the art lovers