There is very little than cinema should not do – as an art
form, any innovation or experiment ought to be welcomed as an attempt at
finding a new means of expression. ‘Slow cinema’ is one such innovation, in
which the pace of a film leaves the audience opens to experiencing the
quotidian reality of the characters in the film. Put badly, it is cinema with
the boring bits left in. Lav Diaz is one of the key exponents of ‘slow cinema’ and
his work stretches this idea as far as many of us will comfortably go. Norte,
The End of History, at 250 minutes, is one of his shortest films.
A modern re-working of
Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the film, set in the northern
Philippines, initially follows Fabian (Sid Lucero), a student who has dropped
out of law school, having fallen victim to certain socio-political, historical
and philosophical contradictions which the law cannot shed light on. He
suggests the answer to the world’s problems is a revolution, a real revolution
in which the activists carry out violence rather than simply talk about it. His
friends do not agree, so, isolated and confused, Fabian embarks on a murderous
spree, wholly misdirected and totally pointless. A poor man, Joaquin (Archie
Alemania) is imprisoned for the crime, leaving his wife Eliza (Angeli Bayani)
and their two children destitute. The consequences of Fabian’s actions play out
over a number of years.
The length and the pace will grab
the headlines but there is more to Norte, The End of History than its
challenging aesthetics. It is worth mentioning, however, that the film is
frequently beautiful to look at and somehow hypnotic – time ceases to matter as
the film’s images somehow wash over you and you are immersed in a way that
makes the drama all the more moving and the violence all the more shocking.
There is a certain reality to the film, which a much shorter film could not
capture so easily. The weight of Eliza’s everyday life is seen in stark detail,
while Fabian’s wanderings take on a powerfully nihilistic feel. A shorter, pacier
film will move from plot point to plot point, but Diaz’ film has its own
special appeal in the way that he captures life playing out. It is neither
exciting nor boring, it just is.
Norte, The End of History
delves into the same themes as Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment albeit
with a modern and specifically Asian re-reading. The film opens with a
discussion of the end of history – capitalism and the West have won – and ends
with the question, “What now?” For Fabian, an unfair and Godless world can be
changed only by violence. His crime is pathetically misdirected and local and
only manages to harm his neighbours. While it only adds to the suffering of
Eliza and Joaquin, it devastates Fabian. Eliza and Joaquin have a different
view of life, one of work and family and togetherness, a view of life in stark
contrast to the laid-back musings of Fabian and his friends. They ultimately
survive thanks to their love for each other and their ability to work their way
out of their problems. Fabian, however, having got away with murder, is a
broken man, wracked by quilt and yet too much of a coward to confess his crime
and ensure Joaquin’s freedom. For him, the world is a cruel place and there is
no such thing as justice. Equally devastatingly, he has lost any sense of his
own self-worth, having become one of the lowest of the low. The film addresses
moral, societal, political and philosophical questions – some specific to the
Philippines and some of a global nature – and finds answers in a panoramic view
of life and time.
However, the film is not without
its flaws and these flaws are ultimately down to the film’s aesthetics – it is,
after all, difficult to entirely divorce any question of the film’s value from
its rigorous and experimental style. Lav Diaz takes 250 minutes to come to his
conclusions and yet Norte, The End of History does not extend even as
far as Dostoevsky’s novel and Woody Allen’s best and most thoughtful film, Crimes
and Misdemeanors. The politics is fairly slight, presumably intended only
as the modern-day equivalent of the semi-Nietzschean philosophy in Dostoevsky’s
novel whereas the comparisons between Western capitalism with a heartless and
exploitative moneylender is obvious. The film is certainly worth seeing and its
hypnotic vision of everyday life is interesting and intriguing but it is
difficult to feel as if anything more can be gained from this kind of
filmmaking. Norte, The End of History has even been accused of being the
work of a sell-out, that Diaz’ usual rigour has been watered down for
commercial gain (the film is the first of Diaz’ many films to get a UK
release). A greater knowledge of Diaz’ cinema may help answer this question,
but, taking into account only Norte, The End of History, there seems to
be something rewarding and something lazy about Diaz’ aesthetics. It imparts a
fascinating and wholly believable vision of everyday life, but it does not do
much more than that, paying only surface attention to the ideas it addresses.
The pursuit of truth or, at least, a close resemblance to the feel of everyday
life is hard to do (and, in a sense, 250 minutes is still far too short a time
to properly cover the years that the narrative encompasses) and Norte, The End of History is a little
simplistic and one-note.
Norte, The End of History is
certainly a film worth seeing. It is a powerful drama, often very moving and
thought-provoking. On first viewing, it is interesting, artless, hypnotic,
irritating, satisfying and disappointing – far from perfect but a good example
of experimental cinema.
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