Tale of the Wind
1988
Directed by Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan Ivens
From the way The Book was going on, it seemed like I should be familiar with this director if I possess any sort of social conscience whatsoever. Apparently I don't, as I have never heard of him before. After viewing this film, I am quite glad I managed to avoid him for so long.
This is an experimental/documentary/fantasy movie, so it is hard to give a plot summary. Basically, Joris Ivens has asthma and travels to China to learn how to breathe well. Naturally, this leads to him taking a space shuttle to the moon and learning that there is no wind there. I think this warrants a "duh." Also, if you were going to reenact a scene from a movie, would it really be A Trip to the Moon? Given the choice, I would much rather fling myself into Patrick Swayze's arms a la Dirty Dancing or perform one of the stunts from Mission Impossible.
I think I could have gotten into this one if the director wasn't so bent on being "whimsical." After all, the idea of an old man trying to learn out to breathe by traveling to Asia...that's a pretty cool concept. There have been previous entries on the List where filmmakers try to find themselves through documentary. But wow, this movie reeked of pretension. The Terracotta Army sequence was just ridiculous.
I don't know why, but I keep convincing myself that we are done with experimental films. Maybe that's how I am getting through this.
RATING: **---
Interesting Facts:
Joris Ivens' last film.
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