Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Official Selection
Welcome to Fandor. Watch thousands of award-winning films online.
×
What is this film called Love?2012
WHAT IS THIS FILM CALLED LOVE? is a passionate, poetic documentary about the nature of happiness. Filmed in Mexico over three days for just £10, it begins as a film about the soviet director Sergei Eisenstein, and then, using his ideas, opens up to look at memory, landscape and the pleasures of walking. It is a personal film and aims to be very cinematic, using three visual dream sequences and the music of PJ Harvey, Simon Fisher Turner, J Espen Jorgensen and Bernard Hermann. The film draws from a range of filmmakers and writers (principally Chris Marker, but also Virginia Woolf, Frank O’Hara and others) but aims to touch on themes that are relevant to a wide range of people, like where joy comes from, the emotions involved with travel and homecoming and the nature of solitude.
Poster & Images
Member Reviews (1)
It's alright.
If you loved The Story of Film, or if you're a fan of Mark Cousins, it's worth a look. But the film borrows a lot from Chris Marker's Sans Soleil, even down to a segment appropriating the Vertigo theme and female voiceover. And while I think Cousins provides an insightful, thoughtful, and ultimately passionate look at whatever he shoots, a Chris Marker he is not.
Still, Cousins manages to make his description of the Flip camera's limitations sound poetic and grand in a very casual and clever way. The man clearly knows what he's after, and it's very clearly a personal film about what he finds in a place like Mexico City. The thesis is laid out from the get-go: it's going to be a personal film; it's going to be a cheap film; it's going to have a lot to do with a picture of Eisenstein and the stream-of-Cousins thought process. As for what that means to the casual viewer, I can't say.
I enjoyed it well enough, but certainly won't watch it again. Cousins is a fascinating character and getting a bit deeper in his head is quite an experience, but for me What Is This Film Called Love? largely misses its mark.