BELLS FROM THE DEEP
A film review by Max Hoffmann
Copyright 1993 Max Hoffmann
Seen: Fri 5/7/93, Camera 3 San Jose, SF Film Festival Rating: 10 (scale of 1->10)
Director: Werner Herzog Camera: ??? Editor: ??? Running Time: less than an hour
There were no program notes on this late entry at the festival, and it was too dark in the theatre to capture the rushing credits. In a nutshell, Herzog sets his camera running with beautiful backdrops throughout Russia. He places various peasants and country folk who speak directly to the lens about their religion/faith/superstitions. It's fascinating viewing. This would be the equivalent to letting the camera roll in the backwoods of America to let snake handlers and holy rollers tell their view of reality.
Near Mongolia, we see the "Yulas," tribes who make strange, deep frog-like croakings to reach a meditative state. View old people on their hands and knees crawling around Lake Kitesh, where they believe there is an enchanted city with angels at the bottom. More chilling is the image of the faithful crawling out "on thin ice" as far as they can to "view" the city below them. As they do, you hear the eerie tearing noises of cracking ice.
A believable "Rasputin" (redeemer) makes frequent appearances and comments, with a DaVinci like river background. You hear him speaking in endless New Testiment-like platitudes reminiscent of Elizabeth Claire Prophet. (In light of the recent Waco faithful-fry, it's sometimes chilling.) In the director's Q/A afterward, Herzog revealed at the time of the filming last year there were about a hundred "Rasputins" claiming to be Jesus returned. Now the number is closer to three hundred. This s a normal phenomenon that occurs whenever Russia is in a state of crisis and the faithful have trouble coping with a changing world.
Although you try not to snicker, some of the images approach Monty Python humor; like the "grand sorcerer of Russia" who tries a mass exorcism of a dozen highly spiritied "possessed" women on a high school gymnasium stage. Herzog takes a similar tack to LESSONS OF DARKNESS where there is no narration to add judgement or a spin to what you are viewing. To an American audience, conditioned by CNN sound bites and news images that resemble action sequences from a Bruce Willis trailer, it's remarkably refreshing to have an extended view of a phenomenon and be forced to draw your own reaction, without help.
Very striking photography, and a lean but touching score.
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