BIRDSONG, EL CANT DELS OCELLS (Serra, 2008)
Review by Christopher S. Long
(Originally posted in 2008. Re-posted
in 2015 with substantial revisions.)
Albert Serra’s “Birdsong” (2008)
has been described as the best Spanish film of the past thirty years.
Specifically, Albert Serra has described it as the best Spanish film
of the past thirty years.
I don't know whether Serra's bravado is
sincere or merely part of a very convincing performance act. It also
doesn’t matter one whit. (2015 Update: Seven years later, I'm
pretty sure it's sincere.)
From the first scene of this unique and
extraordinary movie, shot in high-contrast black-and-white digital
video, you know that you are in the hands of a director who has
complete confidence in his mastery of the audio-visual medium.
Serra’s vision is so singular and so intrinsically cinematic it’s
a challenge to describe it in words. To borrow a phrase from the
Hollywood publicity machine, “Birdsong” is a movie event, a full
immersion in the moment, a daredevil plunge into a world that is
simultaneously abstract and so tangibly dense that it can hardly be
penetrated.
If we can’t penetrate it, we can
still talk about it, or at least dance around it. The plot summary is
the easiest part: The Three Wise Men wander through the desert
looking for baby Jesus. Eventually, they find him. Sorry about the
spoiler. It’s the “eventually” that’s the catch, of course.
These three kings of dis-orient have traveled from afar, and they
don’t really know their way around these parts. They aren’t sure
whether or not they should climb a mountain. They change directions
and stop for rest frequently. Fortunately, they aren't in any
particular hurry. Neither is the director.
Serra is fond of the long take. Really
fond of the really long take. The film’s most bravura scene is a
nine-minute long static shot in which the Wise Men trudge off into
the distance, disappear over a ridge, reappear over the next one, and
then begin to walk back towards camera. Or at least they appear to;
it’s difficult to tell. The longer the shot is held, the more
difficult it becomes to suss out what’s going on which is what
makes it so mesmerizing. The desert mirage becomes more hallucinatory
the longer you look at it.
“Birdsong” is also a surprisingly
funny movie. I have no idea whether or not Albert Serra is a Three
Stooges fan, but I couldn’t help make the comparison, especially
because one of them (Lluis Serrat) happens to possess a Curly-esque
figure. In yet another long take, the Magi jockey for comfortable
position as they sleep in close quarters. After debating whether to
move a bit to the left or a bit to the right, our hefty friend shouts
“Spread out!” Nyuk nyuk.
And did you ever think about what the
Magi did after they delivered their gifts to the Christ child? Here,
they just hang around until Joseph is finally forced to resort to the
Biblical equivalent of flicking off the lights. Listen guys, an angel
told me I need to escape to Egypt so, um, could you get going now?
And oh by the way, Joseph is played by Canadian film critic Mark
Peranson who speaks Hebrew while everyone else in the casts speaks
Catalan. Why? Because Peranson doesn’t speak Catalan, silly!
“Birdsong” generates an endless
stream of breathtaking images and each viewer will have his or her
favorites. I keep thinking about a shadowy shot filmed at dawn in
which one of the Wise Men, visibly only as a silhouette, breathes the
chill morning air in and out in little puffs. He almost seems to be
biting at the air. Perhaps he’s praying quietly, or maybe he just
likes seeing his breath evaporate. It doesn’t matter. What matters
is the sheer pleasure afforded by this strange and evocative image.
And pleasure is what “Birdsong” is
all about, specifically visual pleasure. This is for the cinephilic
junky who likes to look and keep on looking. Set free from the
demands of a taditiaonlly suspenseful narrative, viewers don't need
to anticipate the next plot development, the next shot, or ever to
ask the question “Why?” You look for the sheer pleasure of
looking at something pretty and taking the time (a lot of time) to
enjoy it, wallowing in the thrill of witnessing images seldom seen.
These are pictures to be scanned from left to right, top to bottom,
and then back again. In this sense, Serra’s film harks back to the
earliest days of cinema in which, as scholar Tom Gunning has written,
the real power of cinema was not in the telling of a story but rather
the power of “making images seen” entirely for their own sake.
Cinema then was a new way of seeing, which seems relevant to a story
of these proto-Christians, pioneers who were the first to look at the
world through a whole new lens.
Serra’s sublime slapstick won’t
suit everyone’s taste but what worthwhile film does? I have no idea
if “Birdsong” is the best Spanish film of the past thirty years,
but it is certainly the best film I have seen in quite some time and
one that I have not been able to stop thinking about since I saw it
six months ago. I watch movies precisely because every now and then
something like “Birdsong” comes along.
(2015 Update: Seven years later and I'm
still thinking about “Birdsong.” And really disappointed that it
still hasn't gotten a home theater release in North America. I can't
help but think this is the “purest” of all Christmas movies, or
at least in a tie with “A Charlie Brown Christmas.)
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