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rushthatspeaksI got home from the movie I went to this evening, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gaudior asked me how it was.
"I really think that may be the best movie I've ever seen," I said.
And then she wanted to know how, and why, and all I could do was wave my hands in the air and mutter. Eventually she came to the conclusion that you had to be there.
My powers of description utterly and completely fail me when it comes to Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia (1989), dir. Ulrike Ottinger.
I don't know how to get across even a fraction of why that was so impressive.
A couple of snatches at things: I've never seen riding like that. I'd heard various legends from various people who live near Mongolia about how Mongols are actually descended from horses etc. etc., and having seen the way some Mongolian people ride, that is a totally sensible way to think. I know just enough about riding to know how jaw-droppingly magnificent this was, especially since it was casual, background, in a movie that is no more about riding than it is about sheep or cattle or the first crossing of the Urals from the European side or table manners or Yiddish musical theatre, which is to say that it was a movie about all those things, but not specifically focused on any of them. I did not know people could move like that on a horse.
The first half of this movie made me laugh harder than I can ever recall laughing in a movie theatre.
I'm trying to remember whether I have ever seen another film that was so resolutely and perfectly a female gaze. I mean, there are men in the movie. They are awesome. But-- in a very strange way, I kept thinking of Joanna Russ, of Whileaway, because this is a film in which a young girl takes a rucksack and gets on a train and goes wherever seems like an idea at the time, and you never doubt for one minute that the world will lay itself at her feet. I mean she is safe: not safe from everything, not from wind and rain and illness and the Taklamakan: I mean this is a film in which you can tell by the way the camera looks at this young woman that no human being will ever think of harming her. The film looks at all its women that way. There is a Princess in it who has been robbed, so she takes to highway banditry-- and everyone is so perfectly civilized about it that nobody ever gets hurt. Because the Princess and her ladies are pragmatic and reasonable types, and in perfect command and understanding of their own deep capacity for violence and uncivilized behavior. The closest they ever come to hurting anyone is when someone breaks one of the laws that hold civilization together, and even then it all comes out in the wash. I just-- I mean, this is not how movies generally see groups of women, as powerful, dignified, graceful, complex, sweet, funny, royal, practical, calm all at once. As whole people. That is such a priceless gift of a thing to see.
Also, they never have to make a movie now out of Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus, because this'll do you.
ETA: The waysovay put it was "Ulrike Ottinger's Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia (1989) is one of the best things I have ever seen in my life." Things, not just films. Yes. It is.
gaudior asked me how it was."I really think that may be the best movie I've ever seen," I said.
And then she wanted to know how, and why, and all I could do was wave my hands in the air and mutter. Eventually she came to the conclusion that you had to be there.
My powers of description utterly and completely fail me when it comes to Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia (1989), dir. Ulrike Ottinger.
I don't know how to get across even a fraction of why that was so impressive.
A couple of snatches at things: I've never seen riding like that. I'd heard various legends from various people who live near Mongolia about how Mongols are actually descended from horses etc. etc., and having seen the way some Mongolian people ride, that is a totally sensible way to think. I know just enough about riding to know how jaw-droppingly magnificent this was, especially since it was casual, background, in a movie that is no more about riding than it is about sheep or cattle or the first crossing of the Urals from the European side or table manners or Yiddish musical theatre, which is to say that it was a movie about all those things, but not specifically focused on any of them. I did not know people could move like that on a horse.
The first half of this movie made me laugh harder than I can ever recall laughing in a movie theatre.
I'm trying to remember whether I have ever seen another film that was so resolutely and perfectly a female gaze. I mean, there are men in the movie. They are awesome. But-- in a very strange way, I kept thinking of Joanna Russ, of Whileaway, because this is a film in which a young girl takes a rucksack and gets on a train and goes wherever seems like an idea at the time, and you never doubt for one minute that the world will lay itself at her feet. I mean she is safe: not safe from everything, not from wind and rain and illness and the Taklamakan: I mean this is a film in which you can tell by the way the camera looks at this young woman that no human being will ever think of harming her. The film looks at all its women that way. There is a Princess in it who has been robbed, so she takes to highway banditry-- and everyone is so perfectly civilized about it that nobody ever gets hurt. Because the Princess and her ladies are pragmatic and reasonable types, and in perfect command and understanding of their own deep capacity for violence and uncivilized behavior. The closest they ever come to hurting anyone is when someone breaks one of the laws that hold civilization together, and even then it all comes out in the wash. I just-- I mean, this is not how movies generally see groups of women, as powerful, dignified, graceful, complex, sweet, funny, royal, practical, calm all at once. As whole people. That is such a priceless gift of a thing to see.
Also, they never have to make a movie now out of Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus, because this'll do you.
ETA: The way
sovay put it was "Ulrike Ottinger's Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia (1989) is one of the best things I have ever seen in my life." Things, not just films. Yes. It is.
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Date: 2009-10-24 06:12 am (UTC)It's great that such a movie as this exists in the world. It's great such a place as Mongolia exists in the world.
women, as powerful, dignified, graceful, complex, sweet, funny, royal, practical, calm all at once. As whole people. --wonderful.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-24 06:24 am (UTC)Nine
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Date: 2009-10-24 06:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-24 07:20 am (UTC)I was thinking while showering that this movie, for its runtime, renders the Bechdel Test entirely unnecessary. I don't mean, they do not talk about men because there aren't any to talk about; I mean, it doesn't stand out that they don't. That is awesome.
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Date: 2009-10-24 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-24 12:36 pm (UTC)