MovieChat Forums > Nostalgia de la luz (2011) Discussion > One of the worse documentaries I've ever...

One of the worse documentaries I've ever seen

posted 11 years ago by rabbitmoon
2 replies | jump to latest

I was really excited about seeing this, and its taken me over a year to get round to it. In the meantime, I've noticed a lot of praise for it, and an incredible 100% score on RT.

Yet, it was painfully boring. Here are the reasons why it annoyed me:

The whole thing, especially the narration, seemed aimed at 6 year olds. Here are the parting words - "I am convinced that memory has a gravitational force. It is constantly attracting us. Those who have a memory are able to live in the fragile present moment. Those who have none don't live anywhere. Each night, slowly, impassively, the centre of the galaxy passes over Santiago." Does that strike you as utterly absurd? If so, read on. If you think its beautiful and poetic, then don't read on, because you'll most likely be someone who loves this documentary.

There was very, very little in the 90 minute running time that wasn't captured in the synopsis for the documentary. If you've read the description, and have a vague idea of what its about, then there isn't really any need to waste more time on it. Really. Compared to the human stories for longing that are captured in better documentaries like The Imposter, this one was just so painfully thin.

The link between the observatories and the archeological digs were pretty tenuous and forced. Yes, they're both looking into the past - but do we really need to flit between the two, as if there is any deeper meaning in it at all? Because there really isn't. Its like having a documentary of a factory, then cutting to a few internal body shots and saying "and look... the human body, which works inside the factory, also makes things! How about that! We'll be reminding you of this tenuous link in just a few more minutes".

I've seen documentaries on the Chilean observatories before which actually were interesting, because they showed you things, taught you things, you had a good sense of what life is like working there and you engaged with the personalities working there. In Nostalgia, the footage is so fleeting that you get no real sense of the place at all or what they do - it was just minimal stuff to prop up the tenuous link.

It moved at a snail's pace.

Anyone praising it for having beautiful photography is being silly - Google "chilean desert" or "hubble images" if you need your fix of such things.

[–] Ethereal-Cloud 10 years ago

As a documentary, it failed on every count. It taught me nothing about astronomy, or the Chilean upheaval of the 1970-80's. The movie gets 3 stars (technical merit) from me, for admittedly impressive photography.

[–] rabbitmoon 10 years ago

Incredibly, it was at NUMBER TWELVE in Sight and Sound magazines top 50 documentaries of ALL TIME.

I honestly have no idea how that happened.

I've come to believe that the mere suggestion of something is far more powerful than the actual content and substance. Nostalgia suggests itself to more than it is, and is then taken as such, because too many people are suggestible without thinking for themselves.