MovieChat Forums > Promises Written in Water (2010) Discussion > such a beautiful movie... (Venice screen...

such a beautiful movie... (Venice screening)

posted 14 years ago by jeremiah28
12 replies | jump to latest

I saw the movie today in Venice.
it's all filmed in black and white, a wonderful, breathtaking b/w.
vincent and the blonde actress are a great screen couple.
he's really great in his role.
in some early scenes, his performance also shows a bit of humour, but then it turns into a great rendition of sadness and anger.
it's emotionally moving too, if you manage to connect with the material and the way it's filmed.
some scenes are without audio, as if vg was trying to convey a sense of isolation, and ultimately, "death", given the story and its later development.
the score by vg is haunting, beautiful in the main title. and in the end, there's a beautiful song by a female voice (I stayed til the end of the credits, but I didn't see the name of the song, thought it reminded me an old song, maybe a cover...)
in the end, I felt emotionally touched.
there were mixed reactions. at the end of the press screening, some boos and some round of applause. during the screening, maybe 10-20 people walked out. I really don't understand why, because this is really a wonderfully crafted art movie.
hope it will gain a prize.

[–] DavidCSjoberg 14 years ago

Thanks for sharing that. I look forward to reading more elaborate reviews soon.

[–] david-rf 9 years ago

What the *beep*, you're Dave Grohl.

VIVA LA VINYL

[–] HolyShackles 14 years ago

Wow, now I'm anticipating it even more which I didn't think was possible, though I'm not surprised about the mixed reactions. This sounds like it is his towering achievement, it can't come to theaters soon enough and I expect that when it does it'll probably only play for a week or two at barely a handful of them. BTW, have you seen or will you see Monte Hellman's Road to Nowhere there? You're incredibly lucky to be at that festival with the two of them there, I probably would've gone had it been announced earlier that those two films would be premiered.

[–] DavidCSjoberg 14 years ago

Some outtakes from early reviews:

"True to form, Gallo's drama puts the i in solipsism (and then dots it with a scowly face). It is a film in thrall to the micro-budget monochrome art movies of the 1960s and 70s; a picture that loves the cinema of Andy Warhol and John Cassavetes almost (though not quite) as much as it loves the cinema of Vincent Gallo.

Yes, Promises Written in Water is purely exasperating and abstracted to the nth degree. It's only 74 minutes but it feels like forever; a film to make the time stand still. But it cannot by rights be regarded as a failure, or even as a joke, because one never has the sense that Gallo has lost control of his material. His film is what it is: an unvarnished, unapologetic chunk of black-and-white vérité about a pair of inarticulate souls living life on the margins. As such, it comes with a distinct whiff of danger. There is no telling just where it will go, or what it will do next. In the straitjacketed world of narrative film-making, that has to count for something."

- Xan Brooks

"My sense is that Promises Written in Water wasn’t as bad as some were hoping, and was better than some were expecting. Me, I’m on the fence...I’m not as sold on Promises — I think of it as The Lite Brown Bunny — but I can’t bring myself to dismiss it, either. We already know Gallo is pretentious as heck. On the other hand, I’ve seen worse much [sic] films made by filmmakers who radiate modesty. In Promises, as in The Brown Bunny, Gallo struggles to capture with images delicate ideas that can’t really be put into words. And in these dialogue-happy times, I give any filmmaker credit for at least giving that a try.

The picture, which is in black-and-white, has a texture that’s alternately satiny and flannel-napped, and some of Gallo’s long takes are quite languid and hypnotic. The picture feels like a sketch for something bigger and more carefully shaped, and even though it’s only 75 minutes, it needs to be leaner. I couldn’t, in good conscience, send any of my friends out to pay good money to watch Promises Written in Water. But as much as I want to laugh at Gallo, maybe even slap him silly, I’m glad I saw it."

- Stephanie Zacharek

[–] HolyShackles 14 years ago

Interesting reviews, thanks for posting. I think this sounds like it's a lot better than Brown Bunny which I thought was brought down by all the amateur looking and lifeless shots of the road through the windshield (though they served a purpose and were at least somewhat effective I suppose), but all the moments of his interactions with others such as Daisy's parents and Daisy herself were quite remarkable, and PWIW seems to be made up almost entirely of that so I have high hopes.

[–] peterjstanley 14 years ago

I saw the first public screening and the audience was respectful throughout and really engaged with the film. At the end there was applause and cheers like it was the home team. I really liked it, it's very fresh and progressive. The film communicates in a unique way. The editing is particularly radical and I assume that's a natural result of the way the film was organised.

From some of the early reviews, clearly the knives are out for Gallo again, but I don't understand why. It's amazing that the press would be booing, surely they have another avenue to express their distain. That kind of reaction is out of proportion to a film that is sensitive, tender and thoughtful.

I hope it wins the Golden Lion simply to help it get released and more people who would like it can find it. Also wish I could have seen Gallo's new short 'The Agent', also screening this week. I'd love to see 'Promises Written in Water' again at home on DVD (with the 'The Agent' too?) as there is plenty of scope for multiple interpretations.

By the way, I'm pretty sure the beautiful song at the end is sung by Gallo himself.

[–] DavidCSjoberg 14 years ago

Thanks for that. I´m hoping for "The Agent" to be included in the "Promises Written In Water" DVD as well.

Gallo talked extensively on the editing process of "Promises..." in an interview published in Lodown Magazine 69. I can´t find it online, though I would be able to type it up at some point as I have that issue.

[–] peterjstanley 14 years ago

It would be great if you did, I'd love to read the interview.

[–] DavidCSjoberg 14 years ago

Ok, here´s some of the bits of the interview regarding the shooting and editing process that were of particular interest:

"I would use his (Pete Red Sky´s) crew, his cameras and his actors to pretend to be making a movie, but then I would bring in my camera and sound men, and I would be filming something else...I´d call cut here and action there, then I´d do these improvs and film people while they were on set while they were waiting for the lighting or film rehersal, or film some of the sets they had made."

"There´s 100 hours of film, so the first criteria is to reduce that to 10 hours of what the most beautiful photography was - it could be landscapes, it could be the same take of the same scene, it didn´t matter - whatever I thought was the best 10% of footage. All of it looked pretty good, so when I reduced it to 10% we´re talking about phenomenal footage."

"So now I have 10 hours of film, and the next criteria or filter is that everything has to look good aestethically. So the first two phases are aestethic only, I have no idea after that. There´s sound, but I don´t want to hear it. Now the 10 hours go down to 5 hours. The next level is I turn up the sound - by the way, this movie has 10 minutes of no sound - and the I choose anything I think is 100% honest. I don´t mean documentary, I mean no performance - no acting. So now, I cut that down to 2,5 hours of film."

"3 months go by and I´m looking at these 2,5 hours of footage and I´m not thinking about it as a film whatsoever. So I look at it, and suddenly I realise what´s happening - I see a conflict, a metaphor, a story - not all of it is on the screen but I know what it is. I now know 100% what the film is about, at least to me, I see what the universe is reflecting here out of these 2,5 hours of footage. There´s this lesson and insight about life. And from that, I cut a 77 minute film."

[–] peterjstanley 14 years ago

Thanks for posting this!

[–] polysicsarebest 12 years ago

Thanks for this post, great quotes.

Though it gives a very strong Symbiopsychotaxiplasm ripoff vibe.
-
Shuji Terayama forever.

[–] vsdobbs 14 years ago

I just saw the film in Toronto. It is indeed Gallo singing at the end--if you like this song, I highly recommend his album called When, which is about 10 years old now.

Promises was a delight. Beautifully done--just the right tone, length, look... I don't know if it's a better film than Buffalo (it's obviously a very different beast), but I do believe it's on par and is worthy of multiple viewings. I think its interpretation is open but to me it was about regret and memory--trying, once you've lost someone, either due to death or departure, to really remember everything you can about them in as much detail as possible.