‘Norte’ on yet another list of the year’s best
SID LUCERO in “Norte”: Distinctive, hypnotic visual style
Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz’s “Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan” has landed on another international list: “The Best Films of the Year So Far.”
As 2014 crossed the half-way mark, The Film Stage website picked 25 films that impressed its critics.
It’s a varied collection consisting of films released in the United States theatrically or on other platforms in the last six months.
The website described the lineup as “comprehensive.” Aside from art-house films and festival favorites like “Norte,” Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Like Father, Like Son,” James Gray’s “The Immigrant” and Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac,” there are critical successes (like Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel”) and commercial hits (like Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s “The Lego Movie” and Gareth Edwards’ “Godzilla”).
The Film Stage conceded that “Norte,” though it “may not be easily classified or explained… conjures an intoxicating psychology, transplanting all of its sociopolitical concerns through the eyes of characters so wholly realistic that we feel we’ve actually met them.”
The website pointed out that the film’s “characters… wind up on different spectrums and different receiving ends of various social pressures that exist within the Philippines.” It lauded Diaz for his “languorous observations of very human systems and the overwhelming attention to spiritual/psychological details.”
Long master shots
Diaz’s work was compared to the films of past “humanist directors… (like) Kenji Mizoguchi.”
In spite of the film’s four-hour running time, the site asserted that “nary a shot or moment” could be cut.
While the site acknowledged that Diaz’s “distinctive, hypnotic visual style—long master shots and intuitive relocations of space” make “Norte” “challenging” to watch, it eventually and categorically stated: “It’s been a long time since a filmmaker rewarded [viewers] with so much in exchange for [their] patience.”
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