SUNDANCE 2011: THE NINE MUSES Is UnInspired

  

Sundance 2011: Reviews: THE NINE MUSES

So, I watched John Akomfrah's THE NINE MUSES at the Yarrow Theatre in Park City, Utah during the ten day festival.  And I must say, "A" for the concept, "F" for the execution.  The film is based on Homer's THE ODYSSEY (a great start to a film) and uses text from the lyrical and poetic classic to discuss the life of an immigrant.  Since Homer's THE ODYSSEY is all about coming home, this suits the immigrant-tale since he is always searching for home or for a new home.  Great.

This is where it gets a little rocky.  Akomfrah starts to use quoted passages not from THE ODYSSEY, but from passages from such authors as: Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, and Emily Dickinson.  Now, I have no problem quoting other works, especially as important as these and the others he quoted.  However, my problem results when there lacks focus.  When each section of the film (which corresponds to the nine muses) is diverse it can be difficult to hold them together.  Not to mention that he uses the most chiched passages from these authors.  Most of which I could quote myself from memory.  Now I understand that the familiarity can breed a connection to the work.  It can also breed a lot of unimagined cliches.

Now, add to the pile of stuff, some music.  Don't get me wrong its great soothing, mysterious original tones, but it was present the whole movie.  Which then becomes repetitive.  Now, add to this the static (and I mean static) images of a man in a yellow (sometimes blue, sometimes red) parka standing in the middle of a path looking at a mountain (sometimes a road, sometimes on a boat).  Now I understand isolated individuals looking out contemplatively can work to create a feeling of solidarity, but when it is the entire 90 minutes (and did I mention they were static) it becomes trite.  I literally thought they were photographs (not moving film) until I saw a bird fly by, which reminded me that Akomfrah did this static style on purpose.  For the entire film.

Now, some of the more interesting parts were when they intercut BBC archival footage of various things. However, it was so haphazard and difficult to follow along that I often did not know what was in the footage and how it related.  Perhaps intertitles with the situation and the date could have been useful to connect the dots for us.  Which is too bad, cause that could have saved the film.  

 Like I said, the idea was particularly interesting and if it took it upon itself to follow one man on his own odyssey (much like Homer did), using the music and Homer's words, with some explained inter-splicing of the BBC footage, the film could have been a knockout.  So concept was amazing (and the write up in the SUNDANCE book, too), but the film did not hold up in person, which is a real shame.

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