Michaelangelo Frammartino, Italy, 2010, 88 min
It’s a common claim that science’s main limitation is that it can’t provide moral guidance, but it’s arguable that one of its greatest discoveries, namely of the recycling of matter, makes for a profoundly moral stance, for if we all understood that our atoms will one day leave our bodies to intermingle with each other in new forms throughout the earth, then we might try to treat each other a little better. Sadly, we’ll probably never realise this if all musings on the interconnectedness of life are as ultimately tiring as this effort from director Michelangelo Frammartino.
With a distinct documentary feel, we witness the mundane on-goings of a small village in Italy’s Calabria province; trees are cut down and recycled to make charcoal, an old man’s death is juxtaposed with the birth of a baby goat; no narrative drive, just images of nature’s cycles. There’s some amusing moments, mostly courtesy of cute goats playing around; it’s the kind of film that you feel is forcing you to stop and smell the roses, but there’s ultimately something rather dim or vacant about the endlessly long takes of picturesque minutiae; those who care to fill in the blanks or load the empty images with meaning will find plenty of space for their endeavor.