the life aquatic

this film truly shines with brilliance.
easily the best film produced this year that i’ve seen to date.

as chibi-r once described it to me when he first viewed it in the cinemas (alas, i was not as wise as he), every scene is like a painting. the framing of every single image, scene, transition and movement is perfect. it is so rare that photography is this good, even in perhaps a single scene, let alone keeping consistant throughout the entire work. not one frame of film is wasted – placement, colour, presentation – absolutely flawless.

around the visuals the editing, narrative (not narration… when i can trust you all know the difference, i’ll stop denoting), sound, pacing, presentation, screenplay and script, excecution of production values, excecution of screenplay – acting, is all perfect. i was so amazed by how delicate, precise, and yet warm a dance the life aquatic was – as if every bit of effort put into the film had been rehearsed over and over until it is impossible to have any element any less than perfect.

this is by all accounts, the very first film i have seen that i acknowledge as being perfect in every way. yes – ghost in the shell, jin-roh, solaris are great in their own ways, and of-course i don’t see areas in those films where they could have been improved – as their own works, so they too are perfect, but the emphasis on certain production values in each of these works is different. the life aquatic may not evoke the same emotions in me as jin-roh, or struck me at my abstract core in the same way that ghost in the shell does, present the same sense of abstract serenity and solemnity that solaris does, the same romance as il mare (korea), but where all of these films have perhaps two or three production elements that are laboured over, i feel the life aquatic has nailed them all – to slightly lesser degrees than those other works excel in individually, but excel nonetheless it does indeed.

from the very first frame of a stage depicting a beautifully painted stage-screen (or hard-curtain), the life aquatic asserts itself as a work of art. like a magnificent oil painting that has had love and care put into every single corner, every inch of canvas across a four meter high and seven meter wide frame, so the life aquatic reveals its art in every single-fram 1/25th of film passing across the screen.

the film at times is playful, humourous, sensual, emotional, bitter, satirical and always poignant. it is rich with meaning and symbolism – and like a painting, it only ever has more for you the closer you look, the farther away you stand back – anything you choose to read into this film, anything you are inspired to think, the film not only lends itself to this, but encourages you to go there.

this definitely takes its place in the canon of elite films such as lost in translation and solaris.