DVD Silence
Run time: 87 min
Rating: 6.4
Genres: Drama
Director: Pat Collins
Writers: Pat Collins, Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhride
Stars: Andrew Bennett, Marie Coyne, Tommy Fahy
|
|
Storyline Eoghan is a sound recordist who is returning to Ireland for the first time in 15 years. His reason for returning is a job offer: to find and record places free from man-made sound. His quest takes him away from towns and villages into remote terrain. Throughout his journey, he is drawn into a series of encounters and conversations which gradually divert his attention towards a more intangible silence, one that is bound up with the sounds of the life he had left behind. Influenced by elements of folklore and archive, Silence unfolds with a quiet intensity, where poetic images reveal an absorbing meditation on themes relating to sound and silence, history, memory and exile. Written by Anonymous |
|
Details: Country: Ireland, Germany Release Date: 9 August 2013 (UK) |
|
DVD Silence
previous post
4 comments
Some might judge this film as plodding, frustrating and an example of the worst type of art cinema with pretensions beyond its skill. For others it is slow and thoughtful as the central character, Eoghan, descends within himself whilst travelling throughout the remote area of Donegal in Ireland recording sounds and silence for his latest job.
Eoghan is recording natural sounds which are not man-made. He tells a woman at the beginning that he does not want to travel to Donegal but that this is what is required for his latest project. As the film proceeds we learn that Eoghan is from Donegal. As he connects more and more with his surroundings via sound he returns home literally, and figuratively, to the decaying family house on Tory Island.
The film features moments of conversations between Eoghan and those he encounters on his quest. These punctuate the meditative shots of the bleak and rugged beauty of Donegal. Some of the conversations are in English and others in Gaellic as Eoghan nears his familial home.
There is a philosophical thread that runs throughout the film regarding silence and its relationship to sound, people and places. Near the beginning Eoghan meets a man who says that the first musical note was born from silence. He says further that we are born from silence uttering our first sound at birth and as we make our final dying sounds silence follows. The theme of mortality is present along with that of silence and when Eoghan makes the journey to Tory Island he remarks upon the number of graves of the people he once knew. The closing song from Sandy Denny underlines the connection the director is drawing between sound, silence and mortality.
This is a rich film that does not readily yield its treasures. It demands of the viewer a concentrated engagement along the journey. Consequently I think for many, including me, it will need multiple viewings to appreciate the story it tells of humans and how the few characters with their man-made sounds signpost the film's and Eoghan's progression into silence.
The poor animal has it's legs tied together and is tossed out of a boat. I did not need to see this. The movie was peaceful and enjoyable up to that point. Does the film maker read these reviews? If so I'd like a reply as to why that scene was included. Beautifully filmed countryside and the main character's introspective silences were necessary to allow the viewer to share the moment, but murdering a dog was not something I can accept even if it's to establish a point in an indulgent art-film. The best line came from the old guy who wanted a song. He said "You'll find if you stand still long enough you'll find there's nothing you can learn from out there, it's all right here where you are rooted." A Buddhist type of philosophy. He also says that the space between birth and death is just a lot of wind or noise. So there is some clever thought here but honestly the dog scene caused me to not watch the rest.
This is an extraordinary movie! Eoghan, a sound recordist, returns from 'exile' in Germany to his native Ireland where he seeks out spaces in which to record free from human sounds. We follow him into fields, to the seashore, into forests, into a pool at night, onto the vast empty landscapes of Donegal where awesome undulating swirls of rock stand mutely before us, and we linger and gaze at the man and the places and listen to the sounds . . . But Eoghan's wanderings are not to be without human sounds for he encounters several individuals – a publican, a landowner/farmer, a writer among them – mostly men but one woman. Briefly talk takes place,sometimes in English, sometimes in Irish Gaelic: observations, reflections, talk rendered in an extremely natural fashion. Finally, Eoghan arrives at Tory Island and the house in which his family once lived. The house is now empty, derelict – an intensely human space free forever from the human sounds that once made it 'house', 'home', 'birthplace'. This space is silent yet full of sound. (Viewed at Screen 3, The Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK on 25 August 2013)
Irish screenwriter, producer and director Pat Collins' debut feature film which he co-wrote with screenwriters Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhride and Sharon Whooley, premiered at the 10th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in 2012, was shot on location in Ireland and is an Irish production which was produced by television and film producer Tina Moran. It tells the story about a man named Eoghan who lives in the capital city of Germany where he records sounds, and who after making the decision to continue his work elsewhere says goodbye to a woman he knows and sets out on a journey towards the province of Ulster in Ireland which is his homeland.
Distinctly and precisely directed by Irish filmmaker Pat Collins, this quietly paced and somewhat fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a perceptive and calmly engaging portrayal of an Irish sound recordist who leaves Berlin, Germany and returns to the country he left many years ago to record sounds which are not made by humans. While notable for its majestic milieu depictions, reverent cinematography by cinematographer Richard Kendrick, choice of location and use of sound, time, music, colors and archival footage, this character-driven story about peoples connection to places where documentary and fiction is eloquently incorporated, fragments of history recurs and a person who drives, walks, talks, contemplates and carefully listens to the wind, the birds, the trees, the waves and the people he encounters on his self-reflective pilgrimage, depicts a meditative and lingering study of character.
This observational and prominently reflective and atmospheric drama which is set mostly in Donegal, Ireland during a spring in the 21st century and where a man who seeks, is guided by and interprets sounds becomes drawn to his origins, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, subtle character development and continuity, distinct dialog scenes and the rare acting performance by Irish actor, screenwriter and director Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhride. An exceptional, poetic and cinematographic narrative feature which gained the Michael Dwyer Discovery Award Eoghan Giolla Bhride at the 10th Jameson Dublin Film Festival in 2012.