Silent Light (Stellet licht) Review
By David Kempler
Silent But Deadly
Carlos Reygadas is a well-thought of director with eccentricity allegedly being part of his "charm". In "Silent Light", he is relating a story of Johan (Cornelio Wall Fehr), a married Mennonite who is having an affair with Marianne (Maria Pankratz), another lady in the Mennonite community. While they presumably do engage in sexual relations, there is less heat generated here than during a particularly cool evening at the Arctic Circle.
Johan confesses his adultery to his father whose reaction is to flash what might be a smile or evidence of his electric shock therapy session from earlier in the day. That same look is on his face during all of the scenes we see him. All of the characters in "Silent Light" have similar appearances that scream "I am not of this Earth but I have inhabited the body of this Earthling". Even though this is all purposely done to us by Reygadas it is no less objectionable to watch. I guess this would fall under the umbrella of art in some circles.
Reygadas has attempted to wow us with his directorial prowess and storytelling, but by trying to elevate the story into something metaphysical he has merely created poorly acted drivel that only serves to bore and confuse the audience. He compounds this by drawing out what should be two-second shots into 25-second shots. The result inflicts pain on the viewer. It would be only fair to bar him from making any more films for at least a year. I don't believe in lifetime suspensions.
It is January so it is hard to project to December but I'd bet good cash that I will not see anything worse in the coming year than this steaming heap of dung. Some critics and people that fancy themselves as "getting it" will certainly take exception with my views of this non-entertainment but if you put this in a movie house and gave away tickets, popcorn, Raisinets and soda and filled the place, I dare say that by the end of the film that possibly three people would still be in the theater. Two would be asleep and one would have committed suicide.
