I like vague movies. Not vague as in poorly written, or lacking thematic structure; vague as in demanding analysis, and refusing to provide immediate satisfaction. Movies that you roll around in your head for a while. Goodbye Dragon Inn is my favourite vague movie. All that happens is a woman who works at a closing theatre does her cleaning duties and continuously fails to cross paths with the projectionist. A man in the audience tries and fails to cruise for gay sex, an old actor watches himself on screen, and a woman noisily eats sunflower seeds. The cinema will never play a movie again after tonight. The two staff never meet that night, missing each other by mere minutes. There is no real plot. I haven't really stopped thinking about it.
I believe the human mind loves to be dissatisfied. If something is perfect, who cares? Flaws and failures are the pockmarks we use to grip onto concepts and are what give them form. A neatly tied up plot is forgotten. The mess is what we remember. Vague movies play into that curiosity and need to critique and contextualise. I think they're also often (oh my god Rain stop don't use the big pretentious word) examples of gesamtkunstwerk.
Yes I learned that word off the Brian David Gilbert video. Anyway, I think these movies are gesamtkunstwerk because the movie itself is only one part of the full artwork. Gesamtkunstwerk bring together different pieces of art by different artists to create a cohesive whole. Watched alone, a vague movie leaves questions and curiosity. Often (such as in the case of Czech new wave) there's critical historical context needed to understand the movie, and researching the situation of the movie's creation is part of the experience. Reading the pamphlet that comes with the DVD offers essays and director's interviews, filling in more of the gaps. Reviews and personal mulling finishes the picture: a whole work of art made of different mediums, all stemming from the creation of the movie but, in whole, providing a tremendous perspective into both a film, a time period, a cast and crew, as well as a modern relationship with that film.
A tightly paced, finely polished movie ends when the credits roll. I prefer when my first instinct after a movie is to go 'I need to know more RIGHT fucking now'. Some more examples I like include:
- Stalker
- A Man Vanishes
- Tetsuo: The Iron Man
