Vision du Reel - I lost view of the Landscape

I watched J’ai perdu de vue le paysage at Vision Du Réel last week and I don’t know whether I like or dislike this documentary, ironically for the very topic that it is exploring. The idea of the eternal return, repeated over, and over.

The premise of the documentary was simple. “I have a neighbour and I want to make a documentary about him preparing his next show”, except that inspiration is hard to find, and then the pandemic comes in and scuppers plans for the show to take place, and then there is uncertainty during lockdowns, and the wait for public life to be rebooted, and then the show takes place.

The style of the documentary reminds me of Herzog, as the documentary maker is present in shot regularly, and becomes a growing part of the documentary.

“I’m struggling with this phrase, can you help me?” so they look at the phrase, and they can’t tell what it’s about. It’s a documentary split into 21 or so parts, if I remember correctly. We return eternally to “I wanted to make a documentary about A but…” and then it brings the story forward, over and over. It repeats.

If you’re familiar with observational documentary then you are familiar with the idea that the film maker should not get involved with the subject, and might even try to avoid eye contact.

This documentary breaks that rule. She falls pregnant with his child, and that becomes part of the story. Remember, this was shot during lockdown so rules and conventions do not apply like they might have. When people were trapped, and isolated attitudes changed.

This is not a moral judgement. This was to setup the description of a shot I like. They are in the room, conversing with the actors to explore how to bring the play to life. The key person is sitting, with his child. The camera starts from a wide shot and zooms in over a period of time until the child is fully in frame, reacting to the grown ups. It’s a nice shot, and situation.

I feel that I should watch LA Tea Time before judging the latest documentary. I worry that because I already watched two long documentaries before this one I might have been fatigued and in need of a break. What I hold against the film now, is precisely the purpose of the film. To explore the eternal return.

I feel, that, if I watched LA Tea Time, and then considered the new film I would see it in a more positive light. I like Cinéma Verité and observational cinema, but I don’t really like the Herzog style of documentary. I like Michael Moore and Louis Theroux so it’s not the style I don’t like.

I suspect that I would have enjoyed this documentary more if it was the first or second of the day. I think that by being the third documentary I watched on that day it tarnished my appreciation of the film. I don’t want to be negative about this film but it’s the only one I didn’t appreciate as much.

I want to believe that I just felt fatigue.